Analysis of I Stood Musing in a Black World
Stephen Crane 1871 – 1900
I stood musing in a black world,
Not knowing where to direct my feet.
And I saw the quick stream of men
Pouring ceaselessly,
Filled with eager faces,
A torrent of desire.
I called to them,
"Where do you go? What do you see?"
A thousand voices called to me.
A thousand fingers pointed.
"Look! look! There!"
I know not of it.
But, lo! In the far sky shone a radiance
Ineffable, divine --
A vision painted upon a pall;
And sometimes it was,
And sometimes it was not.
I hesitated.
Then from the stream
Came roaring voices,
Impatient:
"Look! look! There!"
So again I saw,
And leaped, unhesitant,
And struggled and fumed
With outspread clutching fingers.
The hard hills tore my flesh;
The ways bit my feet.
At last I looked again.
No radiance in the far sky,
Ineffable, divine;
No vision painted upon a pall;
And always my eyes ached for the light.
Then I cried in despair,
"I see nothing! Oh, where do I go?"
The torrent turned again its faces:
"Look! look! There!"
And at the blindness of my spirit
They screamed,
"Fool! fool! fool!"
Scheme | abcdexxddxF xxGhxxxxexF xaxxxbcxGhxfxeF xxx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (53%) Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 11100011 110110111 01101111 10100 111010 0101010 1111 11111111 01010111 0101010 111 11111 11001110100 010001 010100101 00111 001111 1100 1101 11010 010 111 10111 011 01001 111010 011111 01111 111101 11000011 010001 110100101 01111101 111001 111011111 010101110 111 010101110 11 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,037 |
Words | 197 |
Sentences | 29 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 11, 15, 3 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 194 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 104 Views
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"I Stood Musing in a Black World" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35689/i-stood-musing-in-a-black-world>.
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