Analysis of On A Palmetto

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



Through all that year-scarred agony of height,
Unblest of bough or bloom, to where expands
His wandy circlet with his bladed bands
Dividing every wind, or loud or light,
To termless hymns of love and old despite,
Yon tall palmetto in the twilight stands,
Bare Dante of these purgatorial sands
That glimmer marginal to the monstrous night.
Comes him a Southwind from the scented vine,
It breathes of Beatrice through all his blades,
North, East or West, Guelph-wind or Ghibelline,
'Tis shredded into music down the shades;
All sea-breaths, land-breaths, systol, diastol,
Sway, minstrels of that grief-melodious Soul.


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDEE
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110011 111111101 11111101 01010011111 111110101 110100011 1101111 11010010101 110110101 1111001111 11111111 1100110101 1111111 11011101001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 610
Words 100
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 493
Words per stanza (avg) 98
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
116

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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    Which of these famous poems is written in villanelle form?
    A Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
    B The Owl And The Pussycat
    C Funeral Blues
    D Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening