Analysis of Harp of the North, Farewell!
Sir Walter Scott 1771 (College Wynd, Edinburgh) – 1832 (Abbotsford, Roxburghshire)
Harp of the North, farewell! The hills grow dark,
On purple peaks a deeper shade descending;
In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark,
The deer, half-seen, are to the covert wending.
Resume thy wizard elm! the fountain lending,
And the wild breeze, thy wilder minstrelsy;
Thy numbers sweet with nature’s vespers blending,
With distant echo from the fold and lea,
And herd-boy’s evening pipe, and hum of housing bee.
Yet, once again, farewell, thou Minstrel Harp!
Yet, once again, forgive my feeble sway,
And little reck I of the censure sharp
May idly cavil at an idle lay.
Much have I owed thy strains on life’s long way,
Through secret woes the world has never known,
When on the weary night dawned wearier day,
And bitterer was the grief devoured alone.—
That I o’erlive such woes, Enchantress! is thine own.
Hark! as my lingering footsteps slow retire,
Some spirit of the Air has waked thy string!
’Tis now a seraph bold, with touch of fire,
’Tis now the brush of Fairy’s frolic wing.
Receding now, the dying numbers ring
Fainter and fainter down the rugged dell;
And now the mountain breezes scarcely bring
A wandering witch-note of the distant spell—
And now, ’tis silent all!—Enchantress, fare thee well!
Scheme | ABABBXBCC DEDEEFEFF XBXBBGBGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110111 11010101010 011011101 01111101010 01110101010 00111101 1101110110 1101010101 011101011101 110111101 1101011101 0101110101 110111101 1111111111 1101011101 110101111 0110101001 111111111 1111001101 1101011111 1101111110 110111101 0101010101 1001010101 0101010101 01001110101 0111011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,249 |
Words | 213 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 318 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 70 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 76 Views
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"Harp of the North, Farewell!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35499/harp-of-the-north%2C-farewell%21>.
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