Analysis of Ballad of a Ship
Down by the flash of the restless water
The dim White Ship like a white bird lay;
Laughing at life and the world they sought her,
And out she swung to the silvering bay.
Then off they flew on their roystering way,
And the keen moon fired the light foam flying
Up from the flood where the faint stars play,
And the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.
'T was a king's fair son with a king's fair daughter,
And full three hundred beside, they say, --
Revelling on for the lone, cold slaughter
So soon to seize them and hide them for aye;
But they danced and they drank and their souls grew gay,
Nor ever they knew of a ghoul's eye spying
Their splendor a flickering phantom to stray
Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.
Through the mist of a drunken dream they brought her
(This wild white bird) for the sea-fiend's prey:
The pitiless reef in his hard clutch caught her,
And hurled her down where the dead men stay.
A torturing silence of wan dismay --
Shrieks and curses of mad souls dying --
Then down they sank to slumber and sway
Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.
Prince, do you sleep to the sound alway
Of the mournful surge and the sea-birds' crying? --
Or does love still shudder and steel still slay,
Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying?
Scheme | ababbcbc abaxbcbC ababbcbC xcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101101010 011110111 1011001110 01111011 11111111 00111001110 110110111 001101001110 110111101110 011100111 11101110 1111101111 11101101111 11011101110 11001001011 101101001110 10110101110 111110111 01001011110 010110111 0100101101 101011110 111111001 101101001110 11111011 10101001110 1111100111 101101001110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,309 |
Words | 255 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 252 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 63 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 139 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Ballad of a Ship" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9943/ballad-of-a-ship>.
Discuss this Edwin Arlington Robinson poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In