Analysis of From The Shore

Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)



A lone gray bird,
Dim-dipping, far-flying,
Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults
Of night and the sea
And the stars and storms.

Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers,
Out into the gloom it swings and batters,
Out into the wind and the rain and the vast,
Out into the pit of a great black world,
Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown,
Love of mist and rapture of flight,
Glories of chance and hazards of death
On its eager and palpitant wings.

Out into the deep of the great dark world,
Beyond the long borders where foam and drift
Of the sundering waves are lost and gone
On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble.


Scheme XXAAA AAXBXXXA BXXX
Poetic Form
Metre 0111 110110 010010101 11001 00101 11001011010 1010111010 10101001001 1010110111 11111011011 11101011 101101011 1110011 1010110111 0101101101 10111101 1011101010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 650
Words 122
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 8, 4
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 168
Words per stanza (avg) 40
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 21, 2023

36 sec read
134

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor best known for poetry. more…

All Carl Sandburg poems | Carl Sandburg Books

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