Analysis of Through Time and Bitter Distance
E. Pauline Johnson 1861 (Emily Pauline Johnson Six Nations) – 1913 (Vancouver)
Unknown to you, I walk the cheerless shore.
The cutting blast, the hurl of biting brine,
May freeze, and still, and bind the waves at war,
Ere you will ever know, O! Heart of mine,
That I have sought, reflected in the blue
Of these sea depths, some shadow of your eyes;
Have hoped the laughing waves would sing of you,
But this is all my starving sight descries—
I.
Far out at sea a sail
Bends to the freshening breeze,
Yields to the rising gale,
That sweeps the seas;
II.
Yields, as a bird wind-tossed,
To saltish waves that fling
Their spray, whose rime and frost
Like crystals cling
III.
To canvas, mast and spar,
Till, gleaming like a gem,
She sinks beyond the far
Horizon’s hem.
IV.
Lost to my longing sight,
And nothing left to me
Save an oncoming night,—
An empty sea.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFGFG EHIHI EJKJK XLMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011111011 0101011101 1101010111 1111011111 1111010001 111111111 1101011111 111111011 1 111101 1101001 110101 1101 1 110111 11111 111101 1101 1 110101 110101 110101 0101 1 111101 010111 11101 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 817 |
Words | 147 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 119 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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"Through Time and Bitter Distance" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/53949/through-time-and-bitter-distance>.
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