Analysis of Moonlight

John Crowe Ransom 1888 (Pulaski) – 1974 (Gambier)



HE feigned a fine indifference
To be so prodigal of light,
Knowing his piteous twisted things
Would lose the crooked marks of spite
When only moonbeams fit the dusk
And made his wicked world seem right.

But we forget so soon the shame,
Conceiving sweetness if we can
Heaven the citadel itself
Illumined on the lunar plan;
And I the chief of sinners, I
The middlemost Victorian!

Now I shall ride the misty lake
With my own love, and speak so low
That not a fishy thing shall hear
The secrets passing to and fro
Amid the moonlight poetries.
O moonshine, how unman us so?


Scheme ABXBXB XCXCXX XDXDAD
Poetic Form
Metre 11010100 11110011 1011101 11010111 1101101 01110111 11011101 01010111 1001001 01010101 01011101 010100 11110101 11110111 11010111 01010101 01011 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 561
Words 107
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 151
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 29, 2023

32 sec read
125

John Crowe Ransom

John Crowe Ransom was an educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. more…

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