Analysis of Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 1. The Musician's Tale; The Saga of King Olaf XVIII. -- King Olaf And Earl Sigvald
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
On the gray sea-sands
King Olaf stands,
Northward and seaward
He points with his hands.
With eddy and whirl
The sea-tides curl,
Washing the sandals
Of Sigvald the Earl.
The mariners shout,
The ships swing about,
The yards are all hoisted,
The sails flutter out.
The war-horns are played,
The anchors are weighed,
Like moths in the distance
The sails flit and fade.
The sea is like lead
The harbor lies dead,
As a corse on the sea-shore,
Whose spirit has fled!
On that fatal day,
The histories say,
Seventy vessels
Sailed out of the bay.
But soon scattered wide
O'er the billows they ride,
While Sigvald and Olaf
Sail side by side.
Cried the Earl: 'Follow me!
I your pilot will be,
For I know all the channels
Where flows the deep sea!'
So into the strait
Where his foes lie in wait,
Gallant King Olaf
Sails to his fate!
Then the sea-fog veils
The ships and their sails;
Queen Sigrid the Haughty,
Thy vengeance prevails!
Scheme | AAXA BBCB DDXD EEXE FFXF GGCG HHIH JJCJ KKIK LLJL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (43%) Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 10111 1101 10010 11111 11001 0111 10010 1101 01001 01101 011110 01101 01111 01011 110010 01101 01111 01011 1011011 11011 11101 01001 10010 11101 11101 1001011 11010 1111 101101 111011 1111010 11011 10101 111101 10110 1111 10111 01011 110010 11001 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 896 |
Words | 170 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 72 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 17 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
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"Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 1. The Musician's Tale; The Saga of King Olaf XVIII. -- King Olaf And Earl Sigvald" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18765/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-%3A-part-1.-the-musician%27s-tale%3B-the-saga-of-king-olaf-xviii.----king-olaf-and-earl-sigvald>.
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