Analysis of Duddingstone
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
WITH caws and chirrupings, the woods
In this thin sun rejoice.
The Psalm seems but the little kirk
That sings with its own voice.
The cloud-rifts share their amber light
With the surface of the mere -
I think the very stones are glad
To feel each other near.
Once more my whole heart leaps and swells
And gushes o'er with glee;
The fingers of the sun and shade
Touch music stops in me.
Now fancy paints that bygone day
When you were here, my fair -
The whole lake rang with rapid skates
In the windless winter air.
You leaned to me, I leaned to you,
Our course was smooth as flight -
We steered - a heel-touch to the left,
A heel-touch to the right.
We swung our way through flying men,
Your hand lay fast in mine:
We saw the shifting crowd dispart,
The level ice-reach shine.
I swear by yon swan-travelled lake,
By yon calm hill above,
I swear had we been drowned that day
We had been drowned in love.
Scheme | XAXA BCXC XDXD EFXF XBXB XGBG XHEH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 110101 011101 01110101 111111 01111101 1010101 11010111 111101 11111101 0101011 01010101 110101 1101111 110111 01111101 001101 11111111 1011111 11011101 011101 111011101 111101 1101011 010111 11111101 111101 11111111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 883 |
Words | 177 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 53 sec read
- 69 Views
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"Duddingstone" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31570/duddingstone>.
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