Analysis of The Wind And The Sea
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
I STOOD by the shore at the death of day,
As the sun sank flaming red;
And the face of the waters that spread away
Was as gray as the face of the dead.
And I heard the cry of the wanton sea
And the moan of the wailing wind;
For love's sweet pain in his heart had he,
But the gray old sea had sinned.
The wind was young and the sea was old,
But their cries went up together;
The wind was warm and the sea was cold,
For age makes wintry weather.
So they cried aloud and they wept amain,
Till the sky grew dark to hear it;
And out of its folds crept the misty rain,
In its shroud, like a troubled spirit.
For the wind was wild with a hopeless love,
And the sea was sad at heart
At many a crime that he wot of,
Wherein he had played his part.
He thought of the gallant ships gone down
By the will of his wicked waves;
And he thought how the churchyard in the town
Held the sea-made widows' graves.
The wild wind thought of the love he had left
Afar in an Eastern land,
And he longed, as long the much bereft,
For the touch of her perfumed hand.
In his winding wail and his deep-heaved sigh
His aching grief found vent;
While the sea looked up at the bending sky
And murmured: 'I repent.'
But e'en as he spoke, a ship came by,
That bravely ploughed the main,
And a light came into the sea's green eye,
And his heart grew hard again.
Then he spoke to the wind: 'Friend, seest thou not
Yon vessel is eastward bound?
Pray speed with it to the happy spot
Where thy loved one may be found.'
And the wind rose up in a dear delight,
And after the good ship sped;
But the crafty sea by his wicked might
Kept the vessel ever ahead.
Till the wind grew fierce in his despair,
And white on the brow and lip.
He tore his garments and tore his hair,
And fell on the flying ship.
And the ship went down, for a rock was there,
And the sailless sea loomed black;
While burdened again with dole and care,
The wind came moaning back.
And still he moans from his bosom hot
Where his raging grief lies pent,
And ever when the ships come not,
The sea says: 'I repent,'
Scheme | ABABCDCEFGFGHIHJKLKLHMHMNONOPQPQPHPHRSRSTBTBUVUVUWUWRQRQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110110111 1011101 00110101101 111101101 0110110101 00110101 111101111 1011111 011100111 11111010 011100111 1111010 111010111 10111111 0111110101 011101010 1011110101 0011111 110011111 0111111 111010111 10111101 011101001 1011101 0111101111 0101101 011110101 10110011 0110101111 110111 1011110101 010101 1111110111 110101 0011010111 0111101 1111011111 1101101 111110101 1111111 0011100101 0100111 1010111101 10101001 101110101 0110101 111100111 0110101 0011110111 001111 110011101 011101 011111101 1110111 01010111 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,994 |
Words | 417 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 56 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,566 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 412 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 06, 2023
- 2:05 min read
- 127 Views
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"The Wind And The Sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28963/the-wind-and-the-sea>.
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