Analysis of The Isle of Portland
Alfred Edward Housman 1859 – 1936
The star-filled seas are smooth to-night
From France to England strown;
Black towers above the Portland light
The felon-quarried stone.
On yonder island, not to rise,
Never to stir forth free,
Far from his folk a dead lad lies
That once was friends with me.
Lie you easy, dream you light,
And sleep you fast for aye;
And luckier may you find the night
Than ever you found the day.
| Scheme | ABAB CDCD AXAX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
| Metre | 01111111 111101 110010101 01011 11010111 101111 11110111 111111 1110111 011111 010011101 1101101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 388 |
| Words | 72 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 3 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 12 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 09, 2023
- 21 sec read
- 390 Views
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"The Isle of Portland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/919/the-isle-of-portland>.
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