Analysis of A Love By The Sea

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



Out of the starless night that covers me,
(O tribulation of the wind that rolls!)
Black as the cloud of some tremendous spell,
The susurration of the sighing sea
Sounds like the sobbing whisper of two souls
That tremble in a passion of farewell.

To the desires that trebled life in me,
(O melancholy of the wind that rolls!)
The dreams that seemed the future to foretell,
The hopes that mounted herward like the sea,
To all the sweet things sent on happy souls,
I cannot choose but bid a mute farewell.

And to the girl who was so much to me
(O lamentation of this wind that rolls!)
Since I may not the life of her compel,
Out of the night, beside the sounding sea,
Full of the love that might have blent our souls,
A sad, a last, a long, supreme farewell.


Scheme ABCABC ABCABC ABCABC
Poetic Form
Metre 110111101 101010111 1101110101 0110101 1101010111 110001011 10010110101 110010111 0111010101 011101101 1101111101 110111011 0101111111 1111111 1111011001 1101010101 11011111101 010101011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 748
Words 149
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 196
Words per stanza (avg) 48
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 12, 2023

44 sec read
192

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

All William Ernest Henley poems | William Ernest Henley Books

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