Analysis of Nocturn
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
At the barren heart of midnight,
When the shadow shuts and opens
As the loud flames pulse and flutter,
I can hear a cistern leaking.
Dripping, dropping, in a rhythm,
Rough, unequal, half-melodious,
Like the measures aped from nature
In the infancy of music;
Like the buzzing of an insect,
Still, irrational, persistent . . .
I must listen, listen, listen
In a passion of attention;
Till it taps upon my heartstrings,
And my very life goes dripping,
Dropping, dripping, drip-drip-dropping,
In the drip-drop of the cistern.
Scheme | XABC XXBX XXDD ACCX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111 1011010 10111010 11101010 10100010 101010100 10101110 00100110 1010111 10100010 11101010 00101010 1110111 01101110 10101110 00111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 514 |
Words | 86 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 49 Views
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"Nocturn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40521/nocturn>.
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