Analysis of Nocturne
Archibald MacLeish 1892 (Glencoe) – 1982 (Boston)
The earth, still heavy and warm with afternoon,
Dazed by the moon:
The earth, tormented with the moon’s light,
Wandering in the night:
La, La, The moon is a lovely thing to see—
The moon is an agony.
Full moon, moon rise, the old old pain
Of brightness in dilated eyes,
The ache of still
Elbows leaning on the narrow sill,
Of motionless cold hands upon the wet
Marble of the parapet,
Of open eyelids of a child behind
The crooked glimmer of the windown blind,
Of sliding faint remindful squares
Across the lamplight on the rocking-chairs:
Why do we stand so late
Stiff fingers on the moonlit gate?
Why do we stand
To watch so long the fall of moonlight on the sand?
What is it we cannot recall?
Tormented by the moon’s light
The earth turns maundering through the night.
Scheme | AA BB CC XX DD EE FF GG HH II X BB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111001101 1101 01101011 100001 11011010111 0111100 11110111 11000101 0111 11010101 1100110101 101010 110110101 010101011 110111 010110101 111111 1101011 1111 11110111101 1111101 101011 011100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 762 |
Words | 144 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 50 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 12 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 82 Views
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"Nocturne" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3760/nocturne>.
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