Analysis of The city and the sea
Emily Pauline Johnson 1861 – 1913
To none the city bends a servile knee;
Purse-proud and scornful, on her heights she stands,
And at her feet the great white moaning sea
Shoulders incessantly the grey-gold sands,--
One the Almighty's child since time began,
And one the might of Mammon, born of clods;
For all the city is the work of man,
But all the sea is God's.
And she--between the ocean and the town--
Lies cursed of one and by the other blest:
Her staring eyes, her long drenched hair, her gown,
Sea-laved and soiled and dank above her breast.
She, image of her God since life began,
She, but the child of Mammon, born of clods,
Her broken body spoiled and spurned of man,
But her sweet soul is God's.
Scheme | ABABCBCD EFEFCBCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010101 1101010111 0101011101 1001000111 10111101 010111111 1101010111 110111 0101010001 1111010101 0101011101 1101010101 1101011101 110111111 0101010111 101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 694 |
Words | 130 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 258 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 63 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 112 Views
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"The city and the sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12616/the-city-and-the-sea>.
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