Analysis of Enoch Arden (tennyson)

Douglas Blair 1951 (London)



Long narrative poem.
Arresting.
Cites a sailor’s life and testing.
Took to bigger ships
To catch the bigger pay.
Wife and children, left behind.
But no, never lost from mind.
Even after shipwreck
One cruel day.
Three prevailed and washed ashore.
But two died, survival lore
Came to be the remedy
For years alone.
Paradise, it could have been.
Sun and surf and foods and wind.
But rescue, ah the rescue
Was his song.
Wake!
A ship, a ship arrives
With some weary foreign lives.
And they take aboard the Castaway
And hunger that is His
But back home in England’s mist
Enoch sad, avoids the Kiss.
Wife and offspring, now
To make a Miller’s bliss.
Contact, none for conscience sake.
And a hostel bed he makes
With his Landlady, who cares
For goodness sakes.


Scheme ABBCDEEFDGGHIJEKLMNODPQRSRMTUT
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 110010 010 10101010 11101 110101 1010101 1110111 101010 1101 1010101 1110101 1110100 1101 101111 1010101 1101010 111 1 010101 1110101 01101010 010111 1110101 1010101 1011 110101 111101 0010111 111011 1101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 758
Words 152
Sentences 18
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 30
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 587
Words per stanza (avg) 135

About this poem

Unquestionably my favourite narrative poem, followed by Evangeline (longfellow) and then The Wee Shop (service),

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Written on January 23, 2023

Submitted by dougb.72572 on January 23, 2023

Modified by dougb.72572 on January 23, 2023

45 sec read
6

Douglas Blair

Blogging poems since 2008. Once a lawyer in general practice. Then 32 years as Shipper in a heavy metal fabricating plant. Retired 2022. Married and father of two. Poet. Hiker. Harmonica Busker. Gospel enthusiast. Photographer. http://shootdempix.blogspot.com/ more…

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