Analysis of On the desert
Stephen Crane 1871 – 1900
On the desert
A silence from the moon's deepest valley.
Fire rays fall athwart the robes
Of hooded men, squat and dumb.
Before them, a woman
Moves to the blowing of shrill whistles
And distant thunder of drums,
While mystic things, sinuous, dull with terrible colour,
Sleepily fondle her body
Or move at her will, swishing stealthily over the sand.
The snakes whisper softly;
The whispering, whispering snakes,
Dreaming and swaying and staring,
But always whispering, softly whispering.
The wind streams from the lone reaches
Of Arabia, solemn with night,
And the wild fire makes shimmer of blood
Over the robes of the hooded men
Squat and dumb.
Bands of moving bronze, emerald, yellow,
Circle the throat and the arms of her,
And over the sands serpents move warily
Slow, menacing and submissive,
Swinging to the whistles and drums,
The whispering, whispering snakes,
Dreaming and swaying and staring,
But always whispering, softly whispering.
The dignity of the accursed;
The glory of slavery, despair, death,
Is in the dance of the whispering snakes.
Scheme | abcdefghbibJKKlmnodphbqgJKKarj |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1010 0101011010 10110101 1101101 011010 110101110 0101011 110110111001 10010010 11101111001 011010 01001001 10010010 1110010100 01110110 101001011 0011011011 100110101 101 111011010 100100110 01001101100 11000010 10101001 01001001 10010010 1110010100 0100101 0101100011 1001101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,060 |
Words | 174 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 30 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 844 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 172 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 112 Views
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