Analysis of To The Commissioners Of Northern Lights
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
I SEND to you, commissioners,
A paper that may please ye, sirs
(For troth they say it might be worse
An' I believe't)
And on your business lay my curse
Before I leav't.
I thocht I'd serve wi' you, sirs, yince,
But I've thocht better of it since;
The maitter I will nowise mince,
But tell ye true:
I'll service wi' some ither prince,
An' no wi' you.
I've no been very deep, ye'll think,
Cam' delicately to the brink
An' when the water gart me shrink
Straucht took the rue,
An' didna stoop my fill to drink -
I own it true.
I kent on cape and isle, a light
Burnt fair an' clearly ilka night;
But at the service I took fright,
As sune's I saw,
An' being still a neophite
Gaed straucht awa'.
Anither course I now begin,
The weeg I'll cairry for my sin,
The court my voice shall echo in,
An' - wha can tell? -
Some ither day I may be yin
O' you mysel'.
Scheme | AABCBC ADDEDE FFFEFE GGGXCX HHHIHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (33%) Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 11110100 01011111 11111111 11011 01110111 0111 11111111 11110111 011111 1111 1101111 1111 11110111 11000101 11010111 1101 1111111 1111 11110101 11110101 11010111 1111 110101 111 111101 0111111 01111100 1111 1111111 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 826 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 125 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 54 Views
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"To The Commissioners Of Northern Lights" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31740/to-the-commissioners-of-northern-lights>.
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