Analysis of His Indian Love to Diogo Alvarez
Louisa Stuart Costello 1799 – 1870
ON HIS DEPARTURE FROM BAHIA
When thou stoodst amidst thy countrymen
Our captive and our foe,
What voice of pity was it then
That check'd the fatal blow?
When the name of the mighty 'Man of Fire'
Re-echoed to the sky,
And our chiefs forgot their deadly ire—
Who hail'd thy victory?
What voice like the softest, sweetest note
That rings from the slender white bird's throat,
Has soothed thee so oft to rest?
And thou hast said, so tenderly,
That to sit among willow isles with me
Was to be ever blest!
Oh! have we not wander'd in silent night
When the thick dews fell from the weeping bough;
And then these eyes, like the stars, were bright—
But are wet like those mournful branches now.
Like the leafless plant that twines around
The forest tree so fair and high,
And when in that withering clasp 'tis bound,
Leaves the blighted trunk to die,—
Thy vows round my trusting heart have bound,
And now thou leav'st me to misery!
Thou wilt not return—thy words are vain!
Thou wilt cross the deep blue sea;
And some dark-eyed maid of thy native Spain
Will hold thee far from me.
The summer will come, and our willow shore
Will hear the merman sing;
But thou wilt list to his song no more
When the rocks with his music ring:
He will murmur thy falsehood to every cave—
Or will tell of thy death on the stormy wave.
Ah! no; ah! no; 'tis of mine he'll tell—
I will weep no more—farewell!—farewell!
Look from thy bark, how I follow afar;
How I scorn the winds' and the billows' war;—
I sink! the waves ring loudly my knell;
My sorrows are passing—farewell!—farewell!
Scheme | X XAXA XBXC DDECCE FGFG HBHBHC ICIC JKJK LLMM XJMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101100 111011100 10100101 11110111 110101 10110101110 110101 0101011101 111100 111010101 111010111 1111111 01111100 111011111 111101 1111100101 1011110101 011110101 1111110101 101011101 01011101 0101100111 1010111 111110111 011111100 111011111 1110111 0111111101 111111 0101101011 11011 111111111 10111101 11101111001 11111110101 111111111 1111111 1111111001 1110100101 110111011 11011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,881 |
Words | 294 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 120 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:30 min read
- 112 Views
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"His Indian Love to Diogo Alvarez" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26085/his-indian-love-to-diogo-alvarez>.
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