Analysis of To Luna

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 (Frankfurt) – 1832 (Weimar)



SISTER of the first-born light,

Type of sorrowing gentleness!

Quivering mists in silv'ry dress
Float around thy features bright;
When thy gentle foot is heard,

From the day-closed caverns then

Wake the mournful ghosts of men,
I, too, wake, and each night-bird.

O'er a field of boundless span

Looks thy gaze both far and wide.

Raise me upwards to thy side!
Grant this to a raving man!
And to heights of rapture raised,

Let the knight so crafty peep

At his maiden while asleep,
Through her lattice-window glazed.

Soon the bliss of this sweet view,

Pangs by distance caused allays;

And I gather all thy rays,
And my look I sharpen too.
Round her unveil'd limbs I see

Brighter still become the glow,

And she draws me down below,
As Endymion once drew thee.


Scheme A X XAB C CB D E EDF G GF H I IHJ K KJ
Poetic Form
Metre 1010111 111100 1001011 1011101 1110111 1011101 1010111 1110111 10011101 1111101 1110111 1110101 0111101 1011101 1110101 1010101 1011111 1110101 0110111 0111101 1001111 1010101 0111101 11111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 737
Words 136
Sentences 9
Stanzas 15
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 39
Words per stanza (avg) 9
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
95

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and politician. more…

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