Analysis of The Christian

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



I heard a story of a sailing man.
He was a surly sort of mariner,
He used to swear at all the seven seas,
And rode them dauntless up and down the earth.

But when he sickened of the windy wash,
He took to wife a proper village woman
And put her in a precious little house;
And there he weathered many winter seasons,
Knocking the ashes neatly from his pipe
Upon the tended hearth.

And only when he went upon the moors,
And felt the sting and censure of the winds,
And tasted of the salt blown in from sea,
Then only would he curse the marriage morning,
And swear he'd not go skulking back again
To sit that hearth like any broken bitch
Whose running time was over.


Scheme XAXX XXXXXX XXXXXXA
Poetic Form
Metre 1101010101 1101011100 1111110101 011110101 1111010101 11110101010 0100010101 01110101010 1001010111 010101 0101110101 0101010101 0101011011 11011101010 011111101 1111110101 1101110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 657
Words 132
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 6, 7
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 173
Words per stanza (avg) 43
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
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John Crowe Ransom

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

All John Crowe Ransom poems | John Crowe Ransom Books

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