Analysis of Poems On The Slave Trade - Sonnet IV
Robert Southey 1774 (Bristol) – 1843 (London)
'Tis night; the mercenary tyrants sleep
As undisturb'd as Justice! but no more
The wretched Slave, as on his native shore,
Rests on his reedy couch: he wakes to weep!
Tho' thro' the toil and anguish of the day
No tear escap'd him, not one suffering groan
Beneath the twisted thong, he weeps alone
In bitterness; thinking that far away
Tho' the gay negroes join the midnight song,
Tho' merriment resounds on Niger's shore,
She whom he loves far from the chearful throng
Stands sad, and gazes from her lowly door
With dim grown eye, silent and woe-begone,
And weeps for him who will return no more.
Scheme | ABBACDDCEBEBDB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100101 101110111 0101111101 1111011111 1101010101 11011111001 0101011101 0100101101 101101011 111111 111111011 1101010101 111110011 0111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 598 |
Words | 109 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 466 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 107 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
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"Poems On The Slave Trade - Sonnet IV" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31872/poems-on-the-slave-trade---sonnet-iv>.
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