Analysis of Commemorative Of A Naval Victory
Herman Melville 1819 – 1891
Sailors there are of the gentlest breed,
Yet strong, like every goodly thing;
The discipline of arms refines,
And the wave gives tempering.
The damasked blade its beam can fling;
It lends the last grave grace:
The hawk, the hound, and sworded nobleman
In Titian's picture for a king,
Are of hunter or warrior race.
In social halls a favored guest
In years that follow victory won,
How sweet to feel your festal fame
In woman's glance instinctive thrown:
Repose is yours--your deed is known,
It musks the amber wine;
It lives, and sheds a light from storied days
Rich as October sunsets brown,
Which make the barren place to shine.
But seldom the laurel wreath is seen
Unmixed with pensive pansies dark;
There's a light and a shadow on every man
Who at last attains his lifted mark--
Nursing through night the ethereal spark.
Elate he never can be;
He feels that spirit which glad had hailed his
worth,
Sleep in oblivion.--The shark
Glides white through the phosphorus sea.
Scheme | XAXAABCAB XCXDDEXXE XFXFFGXXFG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011101001 111100101 01001101 0011100 0111111 110111 010101100 0110101 111011001 01010101 011101001 1111111 01010101 01111111 110101 1101011101 1101011 11010111 110010111 01110101 10100111001 111011101 1011001001 0111011 1111011111 1 10010001 11101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 953 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 10 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 257 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 80 Views
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