Analysis of A Desolate Shore
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
A desolate shore,
The sinister seduction of the Moon,
The menace of the irreclaimable Sea.
Flaunting, tawdry and grim,
From cloud to cloud along her beat,
Leering her battered and inveterate leer,
She signals where he prowls in the dark alone,
Her horrible old man,
Mumbling old oaths and warming
His villainous old bones with villainous talk -
The secrets of their grisly housekeeping
Since they went out upon the pad
In the first twilight of self-conscious Time:
Growling, hideous and hoarse,
Tales of unnumbered Ships,
Goodly and strong, Companions of the Advance,
In some vile alley of the night
Waylaid and bludgeoned -
Dead.
Deep cellared in primeval ooze,
Ruined, dishonoured, spoiled,
They lie where the lean water-worm
Crawls free of their secrets, and their broken sides
Bulge with the slime of life. Thus they abide,
Thus fouled and desecrate,
The summons of the Trumpet, and the while
These Twain, their murderers,
Unravined, imperturbable, unsubdued,
Hang at the heels of their children--She aloft
As in the shining streets,
He as in ambush at some accomplice door.
The stalwart Ships,
The beautiful and bold adventurers!
Stationed out yonder in the isle,
The tall Policeman,
Flashing his bull's-eye, as he peers
About him in the ancient vacancy,
Tells them this way is safety--this way home.
Scheme | AXB XCAXXDXDXXXEXXXX XXXXXXFGCXXA EGFXXBX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01001 0100010101 0101011 101001 11110101 1010001001 11011100101 010011 10011010 11001111001 010111010 11110101 001111101 1010001 1111 10010101001 01110101 1010 1 1100101 1011 11101101 11111001101 1101111101 110001 0101010001 111100 111 11011110101 100101 1101110101 0101 0100010100 10110001 01010 10111111 0110010100 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,276 |
Words | 216 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 16, 12, 7 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 261 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 11, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 165 Views
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