Analysis of The Danish Boy: A Fragment
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
Between two sister moorland rills
There is a spot that seems to lie
Sacred to flowerets of the hills,
And sacred to the sky.
And in this smooth and open dell
There is a tempest-stricken tree;
A corner-stone by lightning cut,
The last stone of a lonely hut;
And in this dell you see
A thing no storm can e'er destroy,
The shadow of a Danish Boy.
In clouds above, the lark is heard,
But drops not here to earth for rest;
Within this lonesome nook the bird
Did never build her nest.
No beast, no bird hath here his home;
Bees, wafted on the breezy air,
Pass high above those fragrant bells
To other flowers:--to other dells
Their burthens do they bear;
The Danish Boy walks here alone:
The lovely dell is all his own.
A Spirit of noon-day is he;
Yet seems a form of flesh and blood;
Nor piping shepherd shall he be,
Nor herd-boy of the wood.
A regal vest of fur he wears,
In colour like a raven's wing;
It fears not rain, nor wind, nor dew;
But in the storm 'tis fresh and blue
As budding pines in spring;
His helmet has a vernal grace,
Fresh as the bloom upon his face.
A harp is from his shoulder slung;
Resting the harp upon his knee,
To words of a forgotten tongue
He suits its melody.
Of flocks upon the neighbouring hill
He is the darling and the joy;
And often, when no cause appears,
The mountain-ponies prick their ears,
--They hear the Danish Boy,
While in the dell he sings alone
Beside the tree and corner-stone.
There sits he; in his face you spy
No trace of a ferocious air,
Nor ever was a cloudless sky
So steady or so fair.
The lovely Danish Boy is blest
And happy in his flowery cove:
From bloody deeds his thoughts are far;
And yet he warbles songs of war,
That seem like songs of love,
For calm and gentle is his mien;
Like a dead Boy he is serene.
Scheme | ABABXCDDAEE FGFGXHAAHII CXCXAJKKJAA LCLCXEAAEII BHBHGXXXXMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 0111011 11011111 1011101 010101 00110101 11010101 01011101 01110101 001111 011111001 0110101 01010111 11111111 01110101 110101 11111111 11010101 11011101 110101101 11111 01011101 01011111 01011111 11011101 11010111 111101 01011111 011011 11111111 10011101 110101 11010101 11010111 01111101 10010111 11100101 111100 1101011 11010001 01011101 01010111 110101 10011101 01010101 11101111 11100101 11010101 110111 01010111 010011001 11011111 01110111 111111 11010111 10111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,786 |
Words | 351 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 11, 11, 11, 11 |
Lines Amount | 55 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 272 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 69 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 91 Views
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"The Danish Boy: A Fragment" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42342/the-danish-boy%3A-a-fragment>.
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