Analysis of Hero And Leander
Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)
See you the towers, that, gray and old,
Frown through the sunlight's liquid gold,
Steep sternly fronting steep?
The Hellespont beneath them swells,
And roaring cleaves the Dardanelles,
The rock-gates of the deep!
Hear you the sea, whose stormy wave,
From Asia, Europe clove in thunder?
That sea which rent a world, cannot
Rend love from love asunder!
In Hero's, in Leander's heart,
Thrills the sweet anguish of the dart
Whose feather flies from love.
All Hebe's bloom in Hero's cheek--
And his the hunter's steps that seek
Delight, the hills above!
Between their sires the rival feud
Forbids their plighted hearts to meet;
Love's fruits hang over danger's gulf,
By danger made more sweet.
Alone on Sestos' rocky tower,
Where upward sent in stormy shower,
The whirling waters foam,--
Alone the maiden sits, and eyes
The cliffs of fair Abydos rise
Afar--her lover's home.
Oh, safely thrown from strand to strand,
No bridge can love to love convey;
No boatman shoots from yonder shore,
Yet Love has found the way.--
That love, which could the labyrinth pierce--
Which nerves the weak, and curbs the fierce,
And wings with wit the dull;--
That love which o'er the furrowed land
Bowed--tame beneath young Jason's hand--
The fiery-snorting bull!
Yes, Styx itself, that ninefold flows,
Has love, the fearless, ventured o'er,
And back to daylight borne the bride,
From Pluto's dreary shore!
What marvel then that wind and wave,
Leander doth but burn to brave,
When love, that goads him, guides!
Still when the day, with fainter glimmer,
Wanes pale--he leaps, the daring swimmer,
Amid the darkening tides;
With lusty arms he cleaves the waves,
And strikes for that dear strand afar;
Where high from Hero's lonely tower
Lone streams the beacon-star.
In vain his blood the wave may chill,
These tender arms can warm it still--
And, weary if the way,
By many a sweet embrace, above
All earthly boons--can liberal love
The lover's toil repay,
Until Aurora breaks the dream,
And warns the loiterer to depart--
Back to the ocean's icy bed,
Scared from that loving heart.
So thirty suns have sped their flight--
Still in that theft of sweet delight
Exult the happy pair;
Caress will never pall caress,
And joys that gods might envy, bless
The single bride-night there.
Ah! never he has rapture known,
Who has not, where the waves are driven
Upon the fearful shores of hell,
Plucked fruits that taste of heaven!
Now changing in their season are,
The morning and the Hesper star;--
Nor see those happy eyes
The leaves that withering droop and fall,
Nor hear, when, from its northern hall,
The neighboring winter sighs;
Or, if they see, the shortening days
But seem to them to close in kindness;
For longer joys, in lengthening nights,
They thank the heaven in blindness.
It is the time, when night and day,
In equal scales contend for sway--
Lone, on her rocky steep,
Lingers the girl with wistful eyes
That watch the sun-steeds down the skies,
Careering towards the deep.
Lulled lay the smooth and silent sea,
A mirror in translucent calm,
The breeze, along that crystal realm,
Unmurmuring, died in balm.
In wanton swarms and blithe array,
The merry dolphins glide and play
Amid the silver waves.
In gray and dusky troops are seen,
The hosts that serve the ocean-queen,
Upborne from coral caves:
They--only they--have witnessed love
To rapture steal its secret way:
And Hecate [36] seals the only lips
That could the tale betray!
She marks in joy the lulled water,
And Sestos, thus thy tender daughter,
Soft-flattering, woos the sea!
"Fair god--and canst thou then betray?
No! falsehood dwells with them that say
That falsehood dwells with thee!
Ah! faithless is the race of man,
And harsh a father's heart can prove;
But thee, the gentle and the mild,
The grief of love can move!"
"Within these hated walls of stone,
Should I, repining, mourn alone,
And fade in ceaseless care,
But thou, though o'er thy giant tide,
Nor bridge may span, nor boat may glide,
Dost safe my lover bear.
And darksome is thy solemn deep,
And fearful is thy roaring wave;
But wave and deep are won by love--
Thou smilest on the brave!"
"Nor vainly, sovereign of the sea,
Did Eros send his shafts to thee
What time the rain of gold,
Bright Helle, with her brother bore,
How s
Scheme | AABCCBDEXE FFGHHGXIXI EEJKKJLMNM OOXLLXXEPN DDQEEQRSES TTMGGMXFXF UUVWWVXYXY SSKZZKX1 X1 MMBKKB2 3 X3 MMR4 4 RGMXM EE2 MM2 X5 X5 XXVPPVBDGD 2 2 ANW |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101101 1101101 110101 010111 010101 011101 11011101 110101010 11110110 1111010 010011 10110101 110111 1110101 01010111 010101 01110101 0111111 1111011 110111 01111010 110101010 010101 01010101 011111 010101 11011111 11111101 11011101 111101 11110101 11010101 011101 111100101 11011101 0100101 1101111 110101010 0111101 110101 11011101 01011111 111111 110111010 111101010 0101001 11011101 01111101 111101010 110101 01110111 11011111 010101 110010101 110111001 010101 01010101 0101101 11010101 111101 11011111 10111101 010101 01110101 01111101 010111 11011101 111101110 01010111 1111110 11001101 01000101 111101 011100101 11111101 0100101 111101001 111111010 110101001 11010010 11011101 01010111 110101 10011101 11011101 0100101 11010101 01000101 01011101 1101 01010101 01010101 010101 0101111 01110101 11101 11011101 11011101 011110101 110101 11010110 01111010 1100101 11011101 1111111 11111 1110111 01010111 11010001 011111 01110111 111101 010101 111101101 11111111 111101 0111101 01011101 11011111 11101 11010101 11011111 110111 1110101 11 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 4,159 |
Words | 738 |
Sentences | 31 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 5 |
Lines Amount | 125 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 253 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 3:46 min read
- 87 Views
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"Hero And Leander" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14328/hero-and-leander>.
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