Analysis of The Ocean
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832 (Kvikne) – 1910 (Paris)
... Oceanward I am ever yearning,
Where far it rolls in its calm and grandeur,
The weight of mountain-like fogbanks bearing,
Forever wandering and returning.
The skies may lower, the land may call it,
It knows no resting and knows no yielding.
In nights of summer, in storms of winter,
Its surges murmur the self-same longing.
Yes, oceanward I am ever yearning,
Where far is lifted its broad, cold forehead!
Thereon the world throws its deepest shadow
And mirrors whispering all its anguish.
Though warm and blithesome the bright sun stroke it
With joyous message, that life is gladness,
Yet ice-cold, changelessly melancholy,
It drowns the sorrow and drowns the solace.
The full moon pulling, the tempest lifting,
Must loose their hold on the flowing water.
Down whirling lowlands and crumbling mountains
It to eternity tireless washes.
What forth it draws must the one way wander.
What once is sunken arises never.
No message comes thence, no cry is heard thence;
Its voice, its silence, can none interpret.
Yes, toward the ocean, far out toward ocean,
That knows no hour of self-atonement!
For all that suffer release it offers,
But trails forever its own enigma.
A strange alliance with Death unites it,
That all it give Him,--itself excepting!
I feel, vast Ocean, thy solemn sadness,
To thee abandon my weak devices,
To thee let fly all my anxious longings:
May thy cool breath to my heart bring healing!
Let Death now follow, his booty seeking:
The moves are many before the checkmate!
Awhile I'll harass thy love of plunder,
As on I scud 'neath thy angry eyebrows;
Thou only fillest my swelling mainsail,
Though Death ride fast on thy howling tempest;
Thy billows raging shall bear the faster
My little vessel to quiet waters.
Ah! Thus alone at the helm in darkness,
By all forsaken, by Death forgotten,
When sails unknown far away are wafted
And some swift-coursing by night are passing,
To note the ground-swell's resistless current,
The sighing heart of the breathing ocean --
Or small waves plashing along the planking,
Its quiet pastime amid its sadness.
Then glide my lingering longings over
Into the ocean-deep grief of nature,
The night's, the water's united coldness
Prepares my spirit for death's dark dwelling.
Then comes day's dawning! My soul bounds upward
On beams of light to the vault of heaven;
My ship-steed sniffing its flank is laving
With buoyant zest in the cooling billow.
With song the sailor to masthead clambers
To clear the sail that shall swell more freely,
And thoughts are flying like birds aweary
Round mast and yard-arm, but find no refuge. ...
Yes, toward the ocean! To follow Vikar!
To sail like him and to sink as he did,
For great King Olaf the prow defending!
With keel unswerving the cold thought cleaving,
But hope deriving from lightest breezes!
Death's eager fingers so near the rudder,
While heaven's clearness the way illumines!
And then at last in the final hour
To feel the bolts and the nails are yielding
And Death is pressing the seams asunder,
That in may stream the absolving water!
Wet winding-sheets shall be folded round me,
And I descend to eternal silence,
While rolling billows my name bear shoreward
In spacious nights 'neath the cloudless moonlight!
Scheme | ABAACADA AXEXCFGF ADFFDDFX HIFXCA FFFAAXDFGXDF FHJAIHAFDDFA KHAEFGBXBJAAFDF DADDGFKX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010 1111011001 011101110 0101000010 0111001111 1111001110 0111001110 1101001110 11111010 1111011110 010111101 0101001110 110101111 110101111 1111100 1101001010 0111001010 1111101010 1101010010 11010010010 1111101110 1111001010 1101111111 1111011010 101010110110 1111011010 1111001110 1101011010 0101011011 111110110 1111011010 1101011010 1111111010 1111111110 1111011010 011100101 0110111110 111111101 11011101 1111111010 1101011010 1101011010 1101101010 1101011010 1101101110 0111011110 11011110 0101101010 111101010 110101110 1111001010 0101011110 0101001010 0111011110 1111011110 1111101110 111101111 1101001010 11010111 1101111110 01110111 1101111110 1010101101 1111011111 1111001010 110100111 1101011010 1101011010 1101011 0111001010 1101001110 0111001010 1011001010 1101111011 0101101010 1101011110 010110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,147 |
Words | 546 |
Sentences | 32 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 6, 12, 12, 15, 8 |
Lines Amount | 77 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 319 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 68 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 2:46 min read
- 130 Views
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"The Ocean" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4420/the-ocean>.
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