Analysis of The Night Bird: A Myth
Charles Kingsley 1819 – 1875
A floating, a floating
Across the sleeping sea,
All night I heard a singing bird
Upon the topmost tree.
'Oh came you off the isles of Greece,
Or off the banks of Seine;
Or off some tree in forests free,
Which fringe the western main?'
'I came not off the old world
Nor yet from off the new-
But I am one of the birds of God
Which sing the whole night through.'
'Oh sing, and wake the dawning-
Oh whistle for the wind;
The night is long, the current strong,
My boat it lags behind.'
'The current sweeps the old world,
The current sweeps the new;
The wind will blow, the dawn will glow
Ere thou hast sailed them through.'
Scheme | ABXB XBBX CDXD AEXE CDXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Etheree (25%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 010010 010101 11110101 01011 11110111 1101110 11110101 110101 1111011 111101 111110111 110111 1101010 110101 01110101 111101 0101011 010101 01110111 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 623 |
Words | 129 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 37 sec read
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"The Night Bird: A Myth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5291/the-night-bird%3A-a-myth>.
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