Analysis of Commemorative Of A Naval Victory



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

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American writer best known for the novel Moby-Dick. more…

All Herman Melville poems | Herman Melville Books

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