Analysis of Recollection
Ada Cambridge 1844 (St Germans, Norfolk) – 1926 (Melbourne)
Awawe-worn boulder, with green sea-moss wrapping
A silken mantle o'er its jagged sides;
And silvery, seething waters softly lapping
Through gulfs and channels hollow'd by the tides:
A lime-cliff overhead, o'erhanging grimly,
A dash of sunlight on its breast of snow;
The white line of the breakers, stretching dimly
Along the narrow sea-beach down below:
The grey waste of the waters, with one slender,
Glimmering, golden ripple far away;
The haze of summer twilight, sweet and tender,
Veiling the fair face of the dying day:
The measured plash of surf upon the shingle,
The ceaseless gurgle through the rocks and stones;
No sound of struggling human life, to mingle
With those mysterious and eternal tones!
No sound—no sound,—a hungry sea-mew only
Breaking the stillness with her little cry;
And the low whisper, when 'tis all so lonely,
Of soft south breezes as they wander by:—
I see it all; sweet dreams of it are thronging
In full floods back upon my weary brain;
To-night, in my dark chamber, the old longing
Almost fulfils its very self again.
The dying sunbeams, on the far waves glinting,
Come like warm kisses to my lips and brow,
Soothing my spirit—all its grey thoughts tinting
With tender shades of golden colour now.
Alone and still, I sit, and think, and listen,
Looking out westward o'er the darkening sea;
My seat the boulder, where the spray-drops glisten;
The tall, white cliffs my regal canopy.
And, as I sit, the fretting cares and sorrows,
Weighing so heavy when the work is done,
The gloomy yesterdays and dim to-morrows,
They slip away and vanish one by one,—
Slip backward to the world that lies behind me,
Ever by sinful footsteps overtrod;
And in this unstain'd world leave nought to bind me,
This sweet world, fillèd with the peace of God!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH CICI AXAX AJAJ KCKCXKBK CLCL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1110111110 0101010111 010010101010 1101010101 011101110 011111111 01110101010 0101011101 01110101110 1001010101 0111011010 1001110101 01011101010 0101010101 111100101110 11010000101 11110101110 1001010101 00110111110 1111011101 1111111111 0111011101 11011100110 11110101 0101101110 1111011101 1011011111 110111011 01011101010 101101001001 11010101110 0111110100 01110101010 1011010111 010100111 1101010111 11010111011 1011011 00101111111 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,747 |
Words | 308 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 155 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 105 Views
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"Recollection" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/90/recollection>.
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