Analysis of By The Sea
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
I started early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me.
And frigates in the upper floor
Extended hempen hands,
Presuming me to be a mouse
Aground, upon the sands.
But no man moved me till the tide
Went past my simple shoe,
And past my apron and my belt,
And past my bodice too,
And made as he would eat me up
As wholly as a dew
Upon a dandelion's sleeve -
And then I started too.
And he - he followed close behind;
I felt his silver heel
Upon my ankle, - then my shoes
Would overflow with pearl.
Until we met the solid town,
No man he seemed to know;
And bowing with a mighty look
At me, the sea withdrew.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC XCXC XXXX XXXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 11010111 010001 010010 111111 01000101 010101 01011101 010101 11111101 111101 01110011 011101 01111111 110101 01011 011101 01110101 111101 01110111 11011 01110101 111111 01010101 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 643 |
Words | 136 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 83 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 579 Views
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"By The Sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/11562/by-the-sea>.
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