Analysis of The Sound of the Sea

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



The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
I heard the first wave of the rising tide
Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
A voice out of the silence of the deep,
A sound mysteriously multiplied
As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
So comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine of foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.


Scheme ABBAABBACDECDE
Poetic Form
Metre 010111111 010110101 1101110101 110100101 0111010101 01100010 11010010101 1111010101 1111111001 001001110 0101011101 0010111101 1101101000010 11011010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 560
Words 104
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 451
Words per stanza (avg) 102
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

31 sec read
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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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    The repetition of similar sounds at the ends of words or within words is known as _______.
    A rhyme
    B stanza
    C imagery
    D rhythm