Analysis of The Drowned Lover

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



I.
Ah! faint are her limbs, and her footstep is weary,
Yet far must the desolate wanderer roam;
Though the tempest is stern, and the mountain is dreary,
She must quit at deep midnight her pitiless home.
I see her swift foot dash the dew from the whortle,
As she rapidly hastes to the green grove of myrtle;
And I hear, as she wraps round her figure the kirtle,
'Stay thy boat on the lake,--dearest Henry, I come.'

II.
High swelled in her bosom the throb of affection,
As lightly her form bounded over the lea,
And arose in her mind every dear recollection;
'I come, dearest Henry, and wait but for thee.'
How sad, when dear hope every sorrow is soothing,
When sympathy's swell the soft bosom is moving,
And the mind the mild joys of affection is proving,
Is the stern voice of fate that bids happiness flee!

III.
Oh! dark lowered the clouds on that horrible eve,
And the moon dimly gleamed through the tempested air;
Oh! how could fond visions such softness deceive?
Oh! how could false hope rend, a bosom so fair?
Thy love's pallid corse the wild surges are laving,
O'er his form the fierce swell of the tempest is raving;
But, fear not, parting spirit; thy goodness is saving,
In eternity's bowers, a seat for thee there.


Scheme ABCBCDDDX AEBEBFFFB AGHGHFFFH
Poetic Form
Metre 1 11101001110 11101001001 1010110010110 11111101001 11011101101 1110011011110 011111101001 111101101011 1 110010011010 11001101001 0010011001010 11101001111 1111110010110 1110110110 0010111010110 101111111001 1 111001111001 0011011011 11111011001 11111101011 11101011011 10110111010110 1111010110110 011001111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,207
Words 229
Sentences 15
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 9
Lines Amount 27
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 315
Words per stanza (avg) 75
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

1:09 min read
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Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

All Percy Bysshe Shelley poems | Percy Bysshe Shelley Books

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