Analysis of When the Evening Star Went Down
Henry Clay Work 1832 (Middletown, Connecticut) – 1884 (Hartford, Connecticut)
The morning was fearful at sea--
The voyagers weary and pale;
Their steamer a wreck, from keel to deck,
Before an Autumnal gale.
Old Neptune came forth in power--
He wore on his features a frown;
And many a guest he took to rest,
When the "Evening Star" went down.
They sleep in a fathomless grave,
The guest and the mariner brave;
They pillow their heads on coral beds,
Beneath the blue ocean waves,
Beneath the blue ocean waves.
Sail'd ever a ship from her quay,
So heavily laden as she,
With folly and fame, with hope and shame,
With vanity, mirth and glee?
But in the dark moment that came,
How useless were rank and renown!
And honors of earth, what were they worth,
When the "Evening Star" went down.
The treacherous ocean is calm--
No longer in storm billows toss's;
Yet darkness and cloud will long enshroud
The hearts that were link'd with the lost.
In how many, how many homes,
Far distant, in country or town,
A light was put out, in dread, in doubt,
When the "Evening Star" when down.
Scheme | abxbxcxC ddxEE aafafcxC xaxxxcxc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011011 01001001 110011111 0110101 11011010 11111001 010011111 1010111 110011 01001001 110111101 0101101 0101101 11001101 11001011 110011101 1100101 10011011 11001001 010111011 1010111 01001011 11001101 110011101 01101101 01101101 11001011 011110101 1010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 976 |
Words | 186 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 5, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 191 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 83 Views
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"When the Evening Star Went Down" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17316/when-the-evening-star-went-down>.
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