Analysis of To the Air of Lorelei
James Clerk Maxwell 1831 (Edinburgh, Scotland) – 1879 (Cambridge, England)
Alone on a hillside of heather,
I lay with dark thoughts in my mind,
In the midst of the beautiful weather
I was deaf, I was dumb, I was blind.
I knew not the glories around me,
I counted the world as it seems,
Till a spirit of melody found me,
And taught me in visions and dreams.
For the sound of a chorus of voices
Came gathering up from below,
And I heard how all Nature rejoices,
And moves with a musical flow.
O strange! we are lost in delusion,
Our ways and doings are wrong,
We are drowning, in wilful confusion,
The notes of that wonderful song.
But listen, what harmony holy
Is mingling its notes with our own!
The discord is vanishing slowly,
And melts in that dominant tone.
And they that have heard it can never
Return to confusion again,
Their voices are music for ever,
And join in the mystical strain.
No mortal can utter the beauty
That dwells in the song that they sing;
They move in the pathway of duty,
They follow the steps of their King.
I would barter the world and its glory,
That vision of joy to prolong,
Or to hear and remember the story
That lies in the heart of their song.
Scheme | ABABCDCD XEDEFGFG CHCHAXAX CICICGCG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01101110 11111011 0011010010 111111111 111010011 11001111 1010110011 01101001 1011010110 11001101 01111101 01101001 111110010 10101011 111001010 01111001 110110010 1100111101 010110010 01011001 011111110 01101001 110110110 01001001 110110010 11001111 11001110 11001111 1110010110 11011101 1110010010 11001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,091 |
Words | 219 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 98 Views
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"To the Air of Lorelei" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20082/to-the-air-of-lorelei>.
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