Analysis of Merlin
Edwin Muir 1887 (Orkney) – 1959 (Cambridge)
O Merlin in your crystal cave
Deep in the diamond of the day,
Will there ever be a singer
Whose music will smooth away
The furrow drawn by Adam's finger
Across the memory and the wave?
Or a runner who'll outrun
Man's long shadow driving on,
Break through the gate of memory
And hang the apple on the tree?
Will your magic ever show
The sleeping bride shut in her bower,
The day wreathed in its mound of snow
and Time locked in his tower?
| Scheme | ABCBCADEFFGCGC |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 11001101 10010101 11101010 1101101 010111010 010100001 1010101 111101 11011100 01010101 1110101 010110010 01101111 0110110 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 432 |
| Words | 87 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 14 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 344 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 85 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 27 sec read
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"Merlin" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10113/merlin>.
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