Analysis of The Flying Dutchman
Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869 – 1935
Unyielding in the pride of his defiance,
Afloat with none to serve or to command,
Lord of himself at last, and all by Science,
He seeks the Vanished Land.
Alone, by the one light of his one thought,
He steers to find the shore from which he came,
Fearless of in what coil he may be caught
On seas that have no name.
Into the night he sails, and after night
There is a dawning, thought there be no sun;
Wherefore, with nothing but himself in sight,
Unsighted, he sails on.
At last there is a lifting of the cloud
Between the flood before him and the sky;
And then--though he may curse the Power aloud
That has no power to die--
He steers himself away from what is haunted
By the old ghost of what has been before,--
Abandoning, as always, and undaunted,
One fog-walled island more.
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DXDX EFEF XGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 01000111010 0111111101 11011101110 110101 0110111111 1111011111 1010111111 111111 0101110101 1101011111 111010101 1111 1111010101 0101011001 01111101001 1111011 11010111110 1011111101 0100110010 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 784 |
Words | 151 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 110 Views
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