Analysis of Lemnos Harbour
Leon Gellert 1892 (Australia) – 1977
The island sleeps,-but it has no delight
For em, to whom that sleep has been unkind.
My thoughts are long of what seems long ago,
And long, too, are my dreams. I do not know
These trailing glories of the star-strewn night
Or the slow sough of the wind.
I hear the rattle of the moving car;
The children crying in the lighted street,
I walk along the same old asphalt way.
I see the church,-I hear the organ play.
I see the hills I wandered on afar,
And spots of rain at my feet.
I see the dust-strewn hedge,-the latched gate;
The gravelled path with roses either side;
The cedar tree,-my mother’s window pane.
I see the place where I sat long and late
By the trellis deep and wide.
The red Virginia crumbles at the wall.
The bed is bare where winter’s snow-drops grew.
I feel my dog come licking at my hand.
I pause awhile beside the door, I stand.
And hear the well-known footsteps softly fall
And the voices that I knew.
I slowly creep and peep beneath the blind.
-My father reads his book within his chair.
Some children play their game of dominoes.
My mother sits beside the fire and sews;
Her head is bowed. I know her eyes are kind
By the grey lines in her hair.
I tap the pane to see those tears unshed.
I see all turn, and watch them sadly stirred
By the sound, and peer to see my face without.
They see, and smile, I hear no welcome shout.
They sit and gaze as they that see the dead,
But no one says a word.
The island sleeps. May sleep come soon to me,
And lull these dreams within my shaken mind;
-These dreams that tell me I have seen the last
of those I left so,-loved so in the past.
* * *
I hear the murmur of the moving sea,
And the murmur of the wind.
Scheme | ABCCAB DEFFDE GHXGH IJKKIJ BLMMBL ANOOXN PBQQ PB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101111101 1111111101 1111111101 0111111111 1101010111 1011101 1101010101 0101000101 110101111 1101110101 1101110101 0111111 110111011 011110101 0101110101 1101111101 1010101 0101010101 0111110111 1111110111 1101010111 010111101 0010111 1101010101 1101110111 110111110 11010101001 0111110111 1011001 110111111 1111011101 10101111101 1101111101 1101111101 111101 0101111111 0111011101 1111111101 1111111001 1 1101010101 0010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,640 |
Words | 337 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 182 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 60 Views
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