Analysis of Lake Superior.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich 1793 ( Ridgefield) – 1860 ( )
Father of Lakes! thy waters bend,
Beyond the eagle's utmost view,
When, throned in heaven, he sees thee send
Back to the sky its world of blue.
Boundless and deep the forests weave
Their twilight shade thy borders o'er,
And threatening cliffs, like giants, heave
Their rugged forms along thy shore.
Nor can the light canoes, that glide
Across thy breast like things of air,
Chase from thy lone and level tide,
The spell of stillness deepening there.
Yet round this waste of wood and wave,
Unheard, unseen, a spirit lives,
That, breathing o'er each rock and cave,
To all, a wild, strange aspect gives.
The thunder-riven oak, that flings
Its grisly arms athwart the sky,
A sudden, startling image brings
To the lone traveller's kindled eye.
The gnarled and braided boughs that show
Their dim forms in the forest shade,
Like wrestling serpents seem, and throw
Fantastic horrors through the glade.
The very echoes round this shore,
Have caught a strange and gibbering tone,
For they have told the war-whoop o'er,
Till the wild chorus is their own.
Wave of the wilderness, adieu--
Adieu, ye rocks, ye wilds, ye woods!
Roll on, thou Element of blue,
And fill these awful solitudes!
Thou hast no tale to tell of man.
God is thy theme. Ye sounding caves,
Whisper of Him, whose mighty plan,
Deems as a bubble all your waves!
Scheme | ABAB CDCE FGFG HIHI JKJK LMLM ENDN BXBI OPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 10111101 0101011 110101111 11011111 10010101 11111010 010011101 11010111 11010111 01111111 11110101 011101001 11111101 01010101 110101101 1101111 01010111 11010101 01010101 1011101 01010111 11100101 11010101 01010101 01010111 1101011 111101110 10110111 11010001 01111111 11110011 011101 11111111 11111101 10111101 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,304 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 114 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 09, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 18 Views
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"Lake Superior." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56605/lake-superior.>.
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