Analysis of Hymn of Apollo
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
I.
The sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie,
Curtained with star-inwoven tapestries,
From the broad moonlight of the sky,
Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes,--
Waken me when their Mother, the gray Dawn,
Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone.
II.
Then I arise, and climbing Heaven's blue dome,
I walk over the mountains and the waves,
Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam;
My footsteps pave the clouds with fire; the caves
Are filled with my bright presence, and the air
Leaves the green Earth to my embraces bare.
III.
The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill
Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day;
All men who do or even imagine ill
Fly me, and from the glory of my ray
Good minds and open actions take new might,
Until diminished by the reign of Night.
IV.
I feed the clouds, the rainbows, and the flowers,
With their ethereal colors; the Moon's globe,
And the pure stars in their eternal bowers,
Are cinctured with my power as with a robe;
Whatever lamps on Earth or Heaven may shine,
Are portions of one power, which is mine.
V.
I stand at noon upon the peak of Heaven;
Then with unwilling steps I wander down
Into the clouds of the Atlantic even;
For grief that I depart they weep and frown:
What look is more delightful than the smile
With which I soothe them from the western isle?
VI.
I am the eye with which the Universe
Beholds itself, and knows it is divine;
All harmony of instrument or verse,
All prophecy, all medicine, is mine,
All light of art or nature; - to my song
Victory and praise in its own right belong.
Scheme | AAXAXBB ACDCDEE AFGFGHH IJKJKLL IXMXMNN AOLOLPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 01010111111 1111100 1011101 1001011111 1011110011 1111010111 1 11010101011 1110010001 1011010101 1110111001 1111110001 1011110101 1 011111111 0111010101 11111100101 1101010111 1101010111 0101010111 1 1101010010 11010010011 00110101010 1111101101 1011111011 1101110111 1 11110101110 1101011101 01011001010 1111011101 1111010101 1111110101 1 110111010 101011101 1100110011 1100110011 1111110111 10001011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,525 |
Words | 297 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 202 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:29 min read
- 233 Views
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"Hymn of Apollo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29130/hymn-of-apollo>.
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