Analysis of A Scene At The Banks Of The Hudson

William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)



Cool shades and dews are round my way,
And silence of the early day;
Mid the dark rocks that watch his bed,
Glitters the mighty Hudson spread,
Unrippled, save by drops that fall
From shrubs that fringe his mountain wall;
And o'er the clear still water swells
The music of the Sabbath bells.

All, save this little nook of land
Circled with trees, on which I stand;
All, save that line of hills which lie
Suspended in the mimic sky--
Seems a blue void, above, below,
Through which the white clouds come and go,
And from the green world's farthest steep
I gaze into the airy deep.

Loveliest of lovely things are they,
On earth, that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
Even love, long tried and cherished long,
Becomes more tender and more strong,
At thought of that insatiate grave
From which its yearnings cannot save.

River! in this still hour thou hast
Too much of heaven on earth to last;
Nor long may thy still waters lie,
An image of the glorious sky.
Thy fate and mine are not repose,
And ere another evening close,
Thou to thy tides shalt turn again,
And I to seek the crowd of men.


Scheme AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH AAIIJJKK LLFFXXMM
Poetic Form
Metre 11011111 01010101 10111111 10010101 111111 11111101 010011101 01010101 11110111 10111111 11111111 01000101 10110101 11011101 01011101 11010101 1110111 11110101 011111010 110101010 101110101 01110011 111111 11110101 100111011 111101111 11111101 110101001 11011101 01010101 11111101 01110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,124
Words 214
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 225
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:04 min read
106

William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. more…

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