Analysis of November Fifth



Anniversary of the Loss of H.M.S. Tweed

Oh, what relief to gaze on yonder sky,
    Where all is holy, calm, and purely bright!
Within, the sound of mirth and revelry
     Startles the timid ear of sober night.

And eyes are bright and silver voices thrill,
     As the harp echoes through the glittering hall;
The jest is there that wakes the laugh at will,
     And mirth has cast her fairy spell o'er all.

I turn, fair spirit of light! where peaceful thou
      Art shining in unatler'd majesty;
The thin clouds float across thy placid brow,
      And catch its silver beam in passing by.

To-night!—oh! on this night—nor many years
     Have wasted, since in sad regret and pain,
Upon the wave, the sound of woe, and tears,
     And frantic pray'rs arose—arose in vain!

Thy light was shrouded then in deepest gloom;
    On that dark coast no friendly radiance shone
To warn the victims of their gaping tomb—
    Despair and death and horror reign'd alone!

Shine on, shine on, thou treacherous planet still;
    Gild with thy beams the now untroubled wave:
Alas! thou fair and fatal cause of ill,
    Thy smiles are lovely—but too late to save!


Scheme X ABCB DEDE FCFA XGXG HIHI DJDJ
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 0100101111 1101111101 1111010101 0101110100 1001011101 0111010101 10110101001 0111110111 01110101101 11110111101 11001100 0111011101 0111010101 1111111101 1101010101 0101011101 0101010101 1111010101 11111101001 1101011101 0101010101 11111100101 1111010101 0111010111 1111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,140
Words 199
Sentences 15
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 25
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 121
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:00 min read
35

Louisa Stuart Costello

Louisa Stuart Costello was a writer on travel and French history. Costello was born in Ireland or Sussex. She resided in Paris, France, near the Seine River. She had no true home, but wandered place to place staying with friends and acquaintances. With her brother Dudley Costello, also a well known for his travel writing, they promoted the copying of illuminated manuscript. She wrote over 100 texts, articles, poems, songs and knew such people as Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore. She was a poet, historian, journalist, painter and novelist. Her father was Colonel James Francis Costello, who died in April 1814 while fighting Napoleon. Costello published Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen, which included her illustrations, and several other popular works of poetry and travel. Her collection Songs of a Stranger was dedicated to William Lisle Bowles. She did not return to France until after her mother sent for her in 1815/18 and then lived chiefly in Paris, where she was a miniature-painter. In 1815 she published The Maid of the Cyprus Isle, etc. She also wrote books of travel, which were very popular, as were her novels, chiefly founded on French history. Another work, published in 1835, is Specimens of the Early Poetry of France. She died in Boulogne sur Mer, France of mouth cancer. more…

All Louisa Stuart Costello poems | Louisa Stuart Costello Books

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