Analysis of The Anchor
Charles Harpur 1813 (Windsor) – 1868 (Australia)
Firm trust of the bold sailor on the shores of sudden storm,
What strength is in its structure and the fitness of its form!
Old ocean’s bed-rock gripping, with the hurricane’s tug ’twill cope,
And therefore ’tis the emblem held of man’s eternal hope.
Through the billows ceaseless raging, by the bleak and stormy steep,
Like a thunderbolt down-rushing it is shot into the deep;
Down where some mute sea-monster its so hideous bulk uprears,
And mightiest silence drowned hath lain for many a thousand years.
In some famed bay of battle when ’tis plunged with sullen roar,
In the Nile, In Navarino, or by Danish Elsinore,
How deep there shall its slumbers be beneath the sounding waves,
Amid the bones of gallant tars in glory’s watery graves.
In the bright and landlocked harbour, the weary voyage o’er,
When only pleasant breezes breathe sweet welcome from the shore,
Its massive form down-dropping to its quiet bed below
Gives signal to the first glad boat that beachward pants to go.
In the calm thou firm-fixed surety, thou strong helper in the storm,
Even a child when first beholding all the fitness of thy form,
Might well divine the dangers wherewithal ’tis thine to cope,
And take thee as the emblem meet of man’s eternal hope
Scheme | AABBCCDD EEDD EEFF AABB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101101011101 11101100010111 11011101010111 0110101110101 101010101010101 10101101110101 11111101110011 0100101111100101 01111101111101 00101111010 1111111010101 01011101011001 0010110010101 11010101110101 11011101110101 1101011111111 0011111001110001 1001110101010111 1101010101111 01110101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,262 |
Words | 216 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 49 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 246 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 67 Views
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"The Anchor" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5176/the-anchor>.
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