Analysis of Midsummer Midnight Skies
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
Midsummer midnight skies,
Midsummer midnight influences and airs,
The shining, sensitive silver of the sea
Touched with the strange-hued blazonings of dawn;
And all so solemnly still I seem to hear
The breathing of Life and Death,
The secular Accomplices,
Renewing the visible miracle of the world.
The wistful stars
Shine like good memories. The young morning wind
Blows full of unforgotten hours
As over a region of roses. Life and Death
Sound on--sound on . . . And the night magical,
Troubled yet comforting, thrills
As if the Enchanted Castle at the heart
Of the wood's dark wonderment
Swung wide his valves, and filled the dim sea-banks
With exquisite visitants:
Words fiery-hearted yet, dreams and desires
With living looks intolerable, regrets
Whose voice comes as the voice of an only child
Heard from the grave: shapes of a Might-Have-Been -
Beautiful, miserable, distraught -
The Law no man may baffle denied and slew.
The spell-bound ships stand as at gaze
To let the marvel by. The grey road glooms . . .
Glimmers . . . goes out . . . and there, O, there where it fades,
What grace, what glamour, what wild will,
Transfigure the shadows? Whose,
Heart of my heart, Soul of my soul, but yours?
Ghosts--ghosts--the sapphirine air
Teems with them even to the gleaming ends
Of the wild day-spring! Ghosts,
Everywhere--everywhere--till I and you
At last--dear love, at last! -
Are in the dreaming, even as Life and Death,
Twin-ministers of the unoriginal Will.
Scheme | AXXXXBXX XXCBXXXXXACXXXXD XAXEXX XXXDXBE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011 110110001 01010010101 11011111 01110011111 0101101 01000100 0100100100101 0101 11110001101 111110 110010110101 1111001100 1011001 11001010101 1011100 1111010111 11001 110010110010 11010100001 11110111101 1101110111 100100001 01111100101 01111111 1101010111 10110111111 11110111 1011 1111111111 11011 1111010101 101111 10101101 111111 10010101101 11001011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,439 |
Words | 240 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 16, 6, 7 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 286 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 63 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 136 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Midsummer Midnight Skies" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40519/midsummer-midnight-skies>.
Discuss this William Ernest Henley poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In