Analysis of The Sands of Dee
Charles Kingsley 1819 – 1875
1 "O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
2 And call the cattle home,
3 And call the cattle home
4 Across the sands of Dee";
5 The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
6 And all alone went she.
7 The western tide crept up along the sand,
8 And o'er and o'er the sand,
9 And round and round the sand,
10 As far as eye could see.
11 The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
12 And never home came she.
13 "Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--
14 A tress of golden hair,
15 A drownèd maiden's hair
16 Above the nets at sea?
17 Was never salmon yet that shone so fair
18 Among the stakes on Dee."
19 They rowed her in across the rolling foam,
20 The cruel crawling foam,
21 The cruel hungry foam,
22 To her grave beside the sea:
23 But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home
24 Across the sands of Dee.
Scheme | AAABAB CCCBCB DDDBDB AAABAB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Burns stanza (92%) |
Metre | 1101010101 010101 010101 010111 0101110111 010111 0101110101 01001001 010101 111111 0101110101 010111 1111111101 011101 01111 010111 1101011111 010111 1100010101 010101 010101 1010101 11011010101 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 961 |
Words | 177 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 14 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 154 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 82 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 53 sec read
- 188 Views
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"The Sands of Dee" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5298/the-sands-of-dee>.
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