Analysis of The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe 1809 (Boston) – 1849 (Baltimore)
In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less-
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody-
Then- ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight-
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define-
Nor Love- although the Love were thine.
Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining-
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.
Scheme | AAXXBB XXXXCC DDEEE FFGGCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111111 11101101 01111101 11010100 10111111 001111001 11011101 01111011 0010111 1000100 1111101 10101011 1110111 1010001 0101011 11111101 1110101 11011001 00110101 11111101 1110100 1100111 1101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 876 |
Words | 147 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 5, 6 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 1,098 Views
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"The Lake" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8471/the-lake>.
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