Analysis of Seashore
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)
I heard or seemed to hear the chiding Sea
Say, Pilgrim, why so late and slow to come?
Am I not always here, thy summer home?
Is not my voice thy music, morn and eve?
My breath thy healthful climate in the heats,
My touch thy antidote, my bay thy bath?
Was ever building like my terraces?
Was ever couch magnificent as mine?
Lie on the warm rock-ledges, and there learn
A little hut suffices like a town.
I make your sculptured architecture vain,
Vain beside mine. I drive my wedges home,
And carve the coastwise mountain into caves.
Lo! here is Rome and Nineveh and Thebes,
Karnak and Pyramid and Giant's Stairs
Half piled or prostrate; and my newest slab
Older than all thy race.
Behold the Sea,
The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
Yet beautiful as is the rose in June,
Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July;
Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds,
Purger of earth, and medicine of men;
Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
Washing out harms and griefs from memory,
And, in my mathematic ebb and flow,
Giving a hint of that which changes not.
Rich are the sea-gods:--who gives gifts but they?
They grope the sea for pearls, but more than pearls:
They pluck Force thence, and give it to the wise.
For every wave is wealth to Dædalus,
Wealth to the cunning artist who can work
This matchless strength. Where shall he find, O waves!
A load your Atlas shoulders cannot lift?
I with my hammer pounding evermore
The rocky coast, smite Andes into dust,
Strewing my bed, and, in another age,
Rebuild a continent of better men.
Then I unbar the doors: my paths lead out
The exodus of nations: I dispersed
Men to all shores that front the hoary main.
I too have arts and sorceries;
Illusion dwells forever with the wave.
I know what spells are laid. Leave me to deal
With credulous and imaginative man;
For, though he scoop my water in his palm,
A few rods off he deems it gems and clouds.
Planting strange fruits and sunshine on the shore,
I make some coast alluring, some lone isle,
To distant men, who must go there, or die.
Scheme | AXBXXXXXXXCBDXXXX AXXEXFX AXXXXXAXDX GXXFXXC AXXXXXGXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (24%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1111110101 1101110111 111111101 1111110101 1111010001 111101111 1101011100 1101010011 1101110011 0101010101 111101001 1011111101 010110011 1111010001 101000101 1111001101 101111 0101 010010001 1100110101 11010111 11110111 111010011 0100110111 1011011100 001010101 1001111101 1101111111 1101111111 1111011101 1100111111 1101010111 111111111 0111010101 111101010 0101110011 111000101 0101001101 111011111 0100110101 1111110101 111101 0101010101 1111111111 11000010001 1111110011 0111111101 101101101 1111010111 1101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,035 |
Words | 377 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 17, 7, 10, 7, 9 |
Lines Amount | 50 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 316 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 75 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 1:53 min read
- 175 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Seashore" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29849/seashore>.
Discuss this Ralph Waldo Emerson poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In