Analysis of Owl Against Robin
Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)
Frowning, the owl in the oak complained him
Sore, that the song of the robin restrained him
Wrongly of slumber, rudely of rest.
"From the north, from the east, from the south and the west,
Woodland, wheat-field, corn-field, clover,
Over and over and over and over,
Five o'clock, ten o'clock, twelve, or seven,
Nothing but robin-songs heard under heaven:
How can we sleep?
`Peep!' you whistle, and `cheep! cheep! cheep!'
Oh, peep, if you will, and buy, if 'tis cheap,
And have done; for an owl must sleep.
Are ye singing for fame, and who shall be first?
Each day's the same, yet the last is worst,
And the summer is cursed with the silly outburst
Of idiot red-breasts peeping and cheeping
By day, when all honest birds ought to be sleeping.
Lord, what a din! And so out of all reason.
Have ye not heard that each thing hath its season?
Night is to work in, night is for play-time;
Good heavens, not day-time!
A vulgar flaunt is the flaring day,
The impudent, hot, unsparing day,
That leaves not a stain nor a secret untold, --
Day the reporter, -- the gossip of old, --
Deformity's tease, -- man's common scold --
Poh! Shut the eyes, let the sense go numb
When day down the eastern way has come.
'Tis clear as the moon (by the argument drawn
From Design) that the world should retire at dawn.
Day kills. The leaf and the laborer breathe
Death in the sun, the cities seethe,
The mortal black marshes bubble with heat
And puff up pestilence; nothing is sweet
Has to do with the sun: even virtue will taint
(Philosophers say) and manhood grow faint
In the lands where the villainous sun has sway
Through the livelong drag of the dreadful day.
What Eden but noon-light stares it tame,
Shadowless, brazen, forsaken of shame?
For the sun tells lies on the landscape, -- now
Reports me the `what', unrelieved with the `how', --
As messengers lie, with the facts alone,
Delivering the word and withholding the tone.
But oh, the sweetness, and oh, the light
Of the high-fastidious night!
Oh, to awake with the wise old stars --
The cultured, the careful, the Chesterfield stars,
That wink at the work-a-day fact of crime
And shine so rich through the ruins of time
That Baalbec is finer than London; oh,
To sit on the bough that zigzags low
By the woodland pool,
And loudly laugh at man, the fool
That vows to the vulgar sun; oh, rare,
To wheel from the wood to the window where
A day-worn sleeper is dreaming of care,
And perch on the sill and straightly stare
Through his visions; rare, to sail
Aslant with the hill and a-curve with the vale, --
To flit down the shadow-shot-with-gleam,
Betwixt hanging leaves and starlit stream,
Hither, thither, to and fro,
Silent, aimless, dayless, slow
(`Aimless? Field-mice?' True, they're slain,
But the night-philosophy hoots at pain,
Grips, eats quick, and drops the bones
In the water beneath the bough, nor moans
At the death life feeds on). Robin, pray
Come away, come away
To the cultus of night. Abandon the day.
Have more to think and have less to say.
And CANNOT you walk now? Bah! don't hop!
Stop!
Look at the owl, scarce seen, scarce heard,
O irritant, iterant, maddening bird!"
Scheme | AABBCCDDE EEEFFFGGDDHH IIJJJKKLLMMNNOOIIPPXXQQ RRSSHHTTUUVVVVWWXXTTYYZZIIII1 1 2 2 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001001011 11011010011 101101011 101101101001 1111110 10010010010 1011011110 10110111010 1111 11100111 1111101111 01111111 11101101111 110110111 00101110101 1100111001 111110111110 11010111110 11111111110 1111011111 110111 010110101 0110101 11101101001 1001001011 111101 110110111 111010111 11101101001 10110110111 1101001001 10010101 0101101011 0111001011 111101101011 010010111 00110100111 101110101 110111111 11001011 101111011 0110101101 1100110101 010001001001 110100101 10101001 110110111 0100100101 1110101111 0111101011 111101101 111011101 1011 01011101 111010111 1110110101 0111011011 01101011 1110111 1101001101 11101111 011010101 101101 101011 1011111 1010100111 1110101 0010010111 101111101 101101 1011101001 111101111 010111111 1 11011111 110011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,099 |
Words | 567 |
Sentences | 33 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 12, 23, 32 |
Lines Amount | 76 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 595 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 143 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 23, 2023
- 2:51 min read
- 122 Views
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"Owl Against Robin" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34773/owl-against-robin>.
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