Analysis of God Help our Men at Sea
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
The wild night comes like an owl to its lair,
The black clouds follow fast,
And the sun-gleams die, and the lightnings glare,
And the ships go heaving past, past, past -
The ships go heaving past!
Bar the doors, and higher, higher
Pile the faggots on the fire:
Now abroad, by many a light,
Empty seats there are to-night -
Empty seats that none may fill,
For the storm grows louder still:
How it surges and swells through the gorges and dells,
Under the ledges and over the lea,
Where a watery sound goeth moaning around -
God help our men at sea!
Oh! never a tempest blew on the shore
But that some heart did moan
For a darling voice it would hear no more
And a face that had left it lone, lone, lone -
A face that had left it lone!
I am watching by a pane
Darkened with the gusty rain,
Watching, through a mist of tears,
Sad with thoughts of other years,
For a brother I did miss
In a stormy time like this.
Ah! the torrent howls past, like a fiend on the blast,
Under the ledges and over the lea;
And the pent waters gleam, and the wild surges scream -
God help our men at sea!
Ah, Lord! they may grope through the dark to find
Thy hand within the gale;
And cries may rise on the wings of the wind
From mariners weary and pale, pale, pale -
From mariners weary and pale!
'Tis a fearful thing to know,
While the storm-winds loudly blow,
That a man can sometimes come
Too near to his father's home;
So that he shall kneel and say,
'Lord, I would be far away!'
Ho! the hurricanes roar round a dangerous shore,
Under the ledges and over the lea;
And there twinkles a light on the billows so white -
God help our men at sea!
Scheme | ababbccddeefGxF hihiijjffffbGxF klkllmmxxfxhGdF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111111 011101 0011100101 001110111 011101 10101010 1011010 10111001 1011111 1011111 1011101 111001101001 1001001001 10100111001 1110111 1100101101 111111 1010111111 0011111111 0111111 1110101 1010101 1010111 1111101 1010111 0010111 101011101101 1001001001 001101001101 1110111 1111110111 110101 0111101101 1100100111 11001001 1010111 1011101 1011011 1111101 1111101 1111101 10101101001 1001001001 011001101011 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,586 |
Words | 324 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 15, 15 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 413 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 53 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"God Help our Men at Sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17496/god--help-our-men-at--sea>.
Discuss this Henry Kendall poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In