Analysis of A Summer Day By The Sea

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



The sun is set; and in his latest beams
Yon little cloud of ashen gray and gold,
Slowly upon the amber air unrolled,
The falling mantle of the Prophet seems.
From the dim headlands many a light-house gleams,
The street-lamps of the ocean; and behold,
O'erhead the banners of the night unfold;
The day hath passed into the land of dreams.
O summer day beside the joyous sea!
O summer day so wonderful and white,
So full of gladness and so full of pain!
Forever and forever shalt thou be
To some the gravestone of a dead delight,
To some the landmark of a new domain.


Scheme ABBAABBACDECDE
Poetic Form
Metre 0111001101 1101110101 100101011 0101010101 1011100111 0111010001 101010101 0111010111 1101010101 1101110001 111101111 0100010111 110110101 110110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 560
Words 108
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 443
Words per stanza (avg) 106
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
134

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

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