Analysis of I Am Like One That For Long Days Had Sate
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
I AM like one that for long days had sate,
With seaward eyes set keen against the gale,
On some lone foreland, watching sail by sail,
The portbound ships for one ship that was late;
And sail by sail, his heart burned up with joy,
And cruelly was quenched, until at last
One ship, the looked-for pennant at its mast,
Bore gaily, and dropt safely past the buoy;
And lo! the loved one was not there - was dead.
Then would he watch no more; no more the sea
With myriad vessels, sail by sail, perplex
His eyes and mock his longing. Weary head,
Take now thy rest; eyes, close; for no more me
Shall hopes untried elate, or ruined vex.
For thus on love I waited; thus for love
Strained all my senses eagerly and long;
Thus for her coming ever trimmed my song;
Till in the far skies coloured as a dove,
A bird gold-coloured flickered far and fled
Over the pathless waterwaste for me;
And with spread hands I watched the bright bird flee
And waited, till before me she dropped dead.
O golden bird in these dove-coloured skies
How long I sought, how long with wearied eyes
I sought, O bird, the promise of thy flight!
And now the morn has dawned, the morn has died,
The day has come and gone; and once more night
About my lone life settles, wild and wide.
Scheme | ABBAXCCDEDFEDF GHHGEDDEIIJKJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111111 1101110101 111110111 011111111 0111111111 010110111 1101110111 11001101010 0101111111 1111111101 11001011101 1101110101 1111111111 1101011101 1111110111 1111010001 1101010111 1001110101 0111010101 1001111 0111110111 0101011111 1101011101 1111111101 1111010111 0101110111 0111010111 0111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,226 |
Words | 240 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 14 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 482 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 120 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 74 Views
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"I Am Like One That For Long Days Had Sate" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31601/i-am-like-one-that-for-long-days-had-sate>.
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