Analysis of The Open Road
Katharine Tynan 1861 (Ireland) – 1931
THE roads of the Sea
Are thronged with merchantmen;
East and West, North and South
They go and come again.
All precious merchandise
They bear in their hold:
Lest the people be starving
In the night and cold.
Now tell me, good merchants,
How this thing can be
That the white ships are thronging
The roads of the sea?
For there's death in the skies
And there's death on the earth;
And men talked of famine
And a frozen hearth.
Yet the ships they go crowding
The roads of the sea;
They bring home their treasures
To you and to me.
O listen, good people,
And hearing, praise God,
That the watch-dogs are keeping
The ships on their road!
They sit watchful and steady
Where the North winds blow;
Sleepless they are keeping
The roads the ships go.
In the day, in the hour,
They will spring--until then,
Their eyes keep the courses
Of the merchantmen.
Forget not, good people,
When ye heap the white board,
When ye draw to the hearth-fire,
To praise the Lord,
That the watch-dogs unsleeping
Keep the roads of the Sea,
Up by the Northern Lights
Where the great ships be.
Scheme | Abxc defe xafA dxxx fAxa gxfx ahfh icxb gjij faxa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (60%) Etheree (25%) Tetractys (23%) |
Metre | 01101 111100 101101 110101 11010 11011 1010110 00101 111110 11111 101111 01101 111001 011101 011110 00101 1011110 01101 111110 11011 110110 01011 1011110 01111 1110010 10111 101110 01011 0010010 111011 111010 10100 011110 111011 11110110 1101 10111 101101 110101 10111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,054 |
Words | 198 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 83 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 20 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 68 Views
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"The Open Road" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25059/the-open-road>.
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