Analysis of On Some Shells Found Inland
Trumbull Stickney 1874 (Geneva) – 1904
These are my murmur-laden shells that keep
A fresh voice tho' the years be very gray.
The wave that washed their lips and tuned their lay
Is gone, gone with the faded ocean sweep,
The royal tide, gray ebb and sunken neap
And purple midday,--gone! To this hot clay
Must sing my shells, where yet the primal day,
Its roar and rhythm and splendour will not sleep.
What hand shall join them to their proper sea
If all be gone? Shall they forever feel
Glories undone and world that cannot be?--
'Twere mercy to stamp out this aged wrong,
Dash them to earth and crunch them with the heel
And make a dust of their seraphic song.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDCEDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111 0111011101 0111110111 1111010101 0101110101 010111111 1111110101 1101001111 1111111101 1111110101 1001011101 110111111 1111011101 01011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 629 |
Words | 121 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 485 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 117 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 100 Views
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"On Some Shells Found Inland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37235/on-some-shells-found-inland>.
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