Analysis of In the Highlands

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



IN the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
   And the young fair maidens
   Quiet eyes;
Where essential silence cheers and blesses,
And for ever in the hill-recesses
   Her more lovely music
   Broods and dies--

O to mount again where erst I haunted;
Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted,
   And the low green meadows
   Bright with sward;
And when even dies, the million-tinted,
And the night has come, and planets glinted,
   Lo, the valley hollow
   Lamp-bestarr'd!

O to dream, O to awake and wander
There, and with delight to take and render,
   Through the trance of silence,
   Quiet breath!
Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,
Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;
   Only winds and rivers,
   Life and death.


Scheme AAXBXAXB CDXXDCXC EEXFAAXF
Poetic Form
Metre 0010001010 1011111010 001110 101 1010101010 0110001100 011010 101 1110111110 1011111010 00111 111 0110101010 001110101 101010 11 1111101010 1010111010 101110 101 11101010010 100100101010 101010 101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 787
Words 130
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 195
Words per stanza (avg) 43
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

39 sec read
84

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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