Analysis of From The Upland To The Sea

William Morris 1834 (Walthamstow) – 1896 (London)



Shall we wake one morn of spring,
Glad at heart of everything,
Yet pensive with the thought of eve?
Then the white house shall we leave,
Pass the wind-flowers and the bays,
Through the garth, and go our ways,
Wandering down among the meads
Till our very joyance needs
Rest at last; till we shall come
To that Sun-god’s lonely home,
Lonely on the hill-side grey,
Whence the sheep have gone away;
Lonely till the feast-time is,
When with prayer and praise of bliss,
Thither comes the country side.
There awhile shall we abide,
Sitting low down in the porch
By that image with the torch:
Thy one white hand laid upon
The black pillar that was won
From the far-off Indian mine;
And my hand nigh touching thine,
But not touching; and thy gown
Fair with spring-flowers cast adown
From thy bosom and thy brow.
There the south-west wind shall blow
Through thine hair to reach my cheek,
As thou sittest, nor mayst speak,
Nor mayst move the hand I kiss
For the very depth of bliss;
Nay, nor turn thine eyes to me.
Then desire of the great sea
Nigh enow, but all unheard,
In the hearts of us is stirred,
And we rise, we twain at last,
And the daffodils downcast,
Feel thy feet and we are gone
From the lonely Sun-Crowned one.
Then the meads fade at our back,
And the spring day ’gins to lack
That fresh hope that once it had;
But we twain grow yet more glad,
And apart no more may go
When the grassy slope and low
Dieth in the shingly sand:
Then we wander hand in hand
By the edges of the sea,
And I weary more for thee
Than if far apart we were,
With a space of desert drear
’Twixt thy lips and mine, O love!
Ah, my joy, my joy thereof!


Scheme AABBCCDDEFGGHIJJKKLMNNOLPQRRIISSTTUUVMWWXXQQYYSSZG1 1
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111 111110 11010111 1011111 10110001 10101101 10010101 1101011 1111111 1111101 1010111 1011101 1010111 1110111 110101 1011101 1011001 1110101 1111101 0110111 10111001 0111101 1110011 1111011 1110011 1011111 1111111 111111 1110111 1010111 1111111 10101011 111101 0011111 0111111 00101 1110111 1010111 10111101 0011111 1111111 1111111 0011111 1010101 10011 1110101 1010101 0110111 1110110 1011101 1110111 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,589
Words 316
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 52
Lines Amount 52
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,258
Words per stanza (avg) 314
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:34 min read
63

William Morris

William Morris, Mayor of Galway, 1527-28. more…

All William Morris poems | William Morris Books

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