Analysis of The Witnesses
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
In Ocean's wide domains,
Half buried in the sands,
Lie skeletons in chains,
With shackled feet and hands.
Beyond the fall of dews,
Deeper than plummet lies,
Float ships, with all their crews,
No more to sink nor rise.
There the black Slave-ship swims,
Freighted with human forms,
Whose fettered, fleshless limbs
Are not the sport of storms.
These are the bones of Slaves;
They gleam from the abyss;
They cry, from yawning waves,
"We are the Witnesses!"
Within Earth's wide domains
Are markets for men's lives;
Their necks are galled with chains,
Their wrists are cramped with gyves.
Dead bodies, that the kite
In deserts makes its prey;
Murders, that with affright
Scare school-boys from their play!
All evil thoughts and deeds;
Anger, and lust, and pride;
The foulest, rankest weeds,
That choke Life's groaning tide!
These are the woes of Slaves;
They glare from the abyss;
They cry, from unknown graves,
"We are the Witnesses!"
Scheme | ababcdcdefefghgI axaa jkjk lmlm ghgI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010101 110001 110001 110101 010111 101101 111111 111111 101111 11101 11011 110111 110111 111001 111101 110100 011101 110111 111111 111111 110101 010111 10111 111111 110101 100101 0111 111101 110111 111001 111011 110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,006 |
Words | 161 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 130 Views
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