Analysis of A Death At Sea
(Coral Sea, Australia)
I
DEAD in the sheep-pen he lies,
Wrapped in an old brown sail.
The smiling blue sea and the skies
Know not sorrow nor wail.
Dragged up out of the hold,
Dead on his last way home,
Worn-out, wizened, a Chinee old, —
O he is safe — at home!
Brother, I stand not as these
Staring upon you here.
One of earth's patient toilers at peace
I see, I revere!
II
In the warm cloudy night we go
From the motionless ship;
Our lanterns feebly glow;
Our oars drop and drip.
We land on the thin pale beach,
The coral isle's round us;
A glade of driven sand we reach;
Our burial ground's found us.
There we dig him a grave, jesting;
We know not his name.
What heeds he who is resting, resting?
Would I were the same!
Come away, it is over and done!
Peace and he shall not sever,
By moonlight nor light of the sun,
For ever and ever!
III
Dirge
'Sleep in the pure driven sand,
(No one will know)
In the coral isle by the land
Where the blue tides come and go.
'Alive, thou wert poor, despised;
Dead, thou canst have
What mightiest monarchs have prized,
An eternal grave!
'Alone with the lovely isles,
With the lovely deep,
Where the sea-winds sing and the sunlight smiles,
Thou liest asleep!'
Scheme | X ABCBCDEDEXXXXAFGFGHIHIFJXJKLKLAXMFMFNXNXOPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (31%) |
Metre | 101010 1 1001111 101111 01011001 111011 111101 111111 1110011 111111 1011111 100111 11110111 11101 1 00110111 101001 1010101 101101 1110111 010111 01110111 10100111 1111011 11111 111111010 11001 101111001 1011110 1111101 110010 1 1 1001101 1111 00101101 1011101 0111101 1111 1100111 10101 0110101 10101 101110011 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,163 |
Words | 233 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 44 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 453 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 74 Views
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