Analysis of The Isles Of Sleep.
Robert Crawford 1959 (Bellshill)
The opiate isles upon time's sea
In the dream-dark
Rise with their harbours silently
Before each day-abandoned bark,
And the worn mariner anchors there
Till thought, new-waked in the dewy air,
Sings like a lark.
The silent isles with their dream-shores
On the waves float,
Whereto the faint-eyed mariner oars
Within the dusk his eerie boat;
All care put by, like one who knows
No tide there turns and no wind blows,
Near or remote!
From day to day upon time's main
We sail on so,
Sure every night some port to gain
In the dream-dark where no winds blow;
Until we too this sea have cross'd
E'en like the galleons that were tost
Here long ago.
Some seem each day to sail so far,
They reach that shore
So very soon where all things are
As they will be for evermore;
Some for so many a night and day
Have to drift on their lonely way
Ere all is o'er.
But all sails touch the land at last:
The slowest come
As in a mist out of the past —
The last dream-isle fades on the foam,
The last stars rise, the last stars set,
And there is but the last day yet
'Tween them and home.
Scheme | ABABCCBDEDEFFEGHGHIEHJKJKLLMNONPQQP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (31%) |
Metre | 010010111 0011 1111100 01110101 001100101 111100101 1101 01011111 1011 10111001 01011101 11111111 11110111 1101 11110111 1111 110011111 00111111 01111111 1110100101 1101 11111111 1111 11011111 1111110 111100101 11111101 11110 11110111 0101 10011101 01111101 01110111 01110111 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,044 |
Words | 210 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 35 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 827 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 208 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 90 Views
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"The Isles Of Sleep." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30775/the-isles-of-sleep.>.
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