Analysis of On a Primitive Canoe
Claude McKay 1889 (Clarendon Parish) – 1948 (Chicago)
Here, passing lonely down this quiet lane,
Before a mud-splashed window long I pause
To gaze and gaze, while through my active brain
Still thoughts are stirred to wakefulness; because
Long, long ago in a dim unknown land,
A massive forest-tree, ax-felled, adze-hewn,
Was deftly done by cunning mortal hand
Into a symbol of the tender moon.
Why does it thrill more than the handsome boat
That bore me o'er the wild Atlantic ways,
And fill me with rare sense of things remote
From this harsh land of fretful nights and days?
I cannot answer but, whate'er it be,
An old wine has intoxicated me.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFEFGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Shakespearean sonnet |
Metre | 1101011101 0101110111 1101111101 11111101 1101001011 0101011111 1101110101 0101010101 1111110101 11110010101 0111111101 1111110101 1101011011 111101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 599 |
Words | 107 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 466 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 105 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 12, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 83 Views
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"On a Primitive Canoe" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6875/on-a-primitive-canoe>.
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