Analysis of To the Ottawa

Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)



Dear dark-brown waters full of all the stain
  Of sombre spruce-woods and the forest fens,
  Laden with sound from far-off northern glens
  Where winds and craggy cataracts complain,
  Voices of streams and mountain pines astrain,
  The pines that brood above the roaring foam
  Of La Montagne or Les Erables; thine home
  Is distant yet, a shleter far to gain.
  Aye still to eastward, past the shadowy lake
  And the long slopes of Rigaud toward the sun,
  The mightier stream, thy comrade, waits for thee,
  The beryl waters that espouse and take
  Thine in thei deep embrace, and bear thee on
  In that great bridal journey to the sea.


Scheme ABBAACCADEFDGB
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011101 111100101 1011111101 110101001 101101011 0111010101 110111111 110101111 11110101001 0011110101 0100111111 0101010101 1011010111 0111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 635
Words 110
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 490
Words per stanza (avg) 108
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 29, 2023

33 sec read
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Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman FRSC was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English." Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group which also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. more…

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