Analysis of The Mocking-Bird

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



Superb and sole, upon a plumed spray
That o'er the general leafage boldly grew,
He summ'd the woods in song; or typic drew
The watch of hungry hawks, the lone dismay
Of languid doves when long their lovers stray,
And all birds' passion-plays that sprinkle dew
At morn in brake or bosky avenue.
Whate'er birds did or dreamed, this bird could say.
Then down he shot, bounced airily along
The sward, twitched in a grasshopper, made song
Midflight, perched, prinked, and to his art again.
Sweet Science, this large riddle read me plain:
How may the death of that dull insect be
The life of yon trim Shakespeare on the tree?


Scheme ABBAABBACCDEFF
Poetic Form
Metre 010101011 11001001101 110101111 0111010101 1101111101 0111011101 11011110 1011111111 11111101 011001011 111011101 1101110111 110111111 011111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 614
Words 113
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 486
Words per stanza (avg) 111
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
77

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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