Analysis of Icebergs
Towering rolling floating mountains,
barren white monoliths of ice
riding gracefully up up on endless swells
Ancient ballet masters dancing
in stop to a soundless air,
to poise upon the crest with an artist’s pride
then sweep down into the trough
crushing all that moves below.
Stretching to the far horizon and beyond
these giants of the arctic sea
march round with threatening stance
frozen guardians, hailing no friends
for neither alien ship nor comrade-in-arms
can find safe passage.
And when paths cross
they crash together with thunderous roar,
grinding and smashing in mindless combat
til one succumbs to the greater force
and yields in broken splendor.
The victor moves on to rise again
on the shoulder of another swell
while the vanquished wallow helplessly
searching for new balance.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUJV |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 100101010 1011011 10100111101 10011010 011011 11010111101 1110101 1011101 10101010001 11010101 1111001 101001011 11010011101 11110 0111 1101011001 1001001010 110110101 0101010 010111101 101010101 101010100 101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 774 |
Words | 129 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 23 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 655 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 129 |
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"Icebergs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/101902/icebergs>.
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