Analysis of Fairy-Land

Edgar Allan Poe 1809 (Boston) – 1849 (Baltimore)



Dim vales- and shadowy floods-
          And cloudy-looking woods,
          Whose forms we can't discover
          For the tears that drip all over!
          Huge moons there wax and wane-
          Again- again- again-
          Every moment of the night-
          Forever changing places-
          And they put out the star-light
          With the breath from their pale faces.
          About twelve by the moon-dial,
          One more filmy than the rest
          (A kind which, upon trial,
          They have found to be the best)
          Comes down- still down- and down,
          With its centre on the crown
          Of a mountain's eminence,
          While its wide circumference
          In easy drapery falls
          Over hamlets, over halls,
          Wherever they may be-
          O'er the strange woods- o'er the sea-
          Over spirits on the wing-
          Over every drowsy thing-
          And buries them up quite
          In a labyrinth of light-
          And then, how deep!- O, deep!
          Is the passion of their sleep.
          In the morning they arise,
          And their moony covering
          Is soaring in the skies,
          With the tempests as they toss,
          Like- almost anything-
          Or a yellow Albatross.
          They use that moon no more
          For the same end as before-
          Videlicet, a tent-
          Which I think extravagant:
          Its atomies, however,
          Into a shower dissever,
          Of which those butterflies
          Of Earth, who seek the skies,
          And so come down again,
          (Never-contented things!)
          Have brought a specimen
          Upon their quivering wings.


Scheme ABCCDEFGFGHIHIJJKKLLMMNNFFOOPNPQNRSSTUCCPPEVWV
Poetic Form
Metre 1101001 010101 1111010 10111110 111101 010101 10010101 0101010 0111011 10111110 01110110 111101 0110110 1111101 111101 1110101 1010100 111010 0101001 1010101 010111 100111001 1010101 10100101 010111 001011 011111 1010111 0010101 011100 110001 101111 1110 101010 111111 1011101 101 1110100 1110 010101 11110 111101 011101 100101 110100 0111001
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,676
Words 225
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 46
Lines Amount 46
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 981
Words per stanza (avg) 221
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

1:08 min read
396

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. more…

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    "Fairy-Land" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8441/fairy-land>.

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