Analysis of Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



I.
The sun is warm, the sky is clear,
The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
The purple noon's transparent might,
The breath of the moist earth is light,
Around its unexpanded buds;
Like many a voice of one delight
The winds, the birds, the ocean floods,
The city's voice itself, is soft like Solitude's.

II.
I see the deep's untrampled floor
With green and purple seaweeds strown;
I see the waves upon the shore,
Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown:
I sit upon the sands alone,--
The lightning of the noontide ocean
Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion,
How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.

III.
Alas! I have nor hope nor health,
Nor peace within nor calm around,
Nor that content surpassing wealth
The sage in meditation found,
And walked with inward glory crowned--
Nor fame nor power, nor love, nor leisure,
Others I see whom these surround--
Smiling they live, and call life pleasure;--
To me that cup has been dealt in another measure.

IV.
Yet now despair itself is mild,
Even as the winds and waters are;
I could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have born and yet must bear,
Till death like sleep might steal on me,
And I might feel in the warm air
My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea
Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.

V.
Some might lament that I were cold,
As I, when this sweet day is gone,
Which my lost heart, too soon grown old,
Insults with this untimely moan;
They might lament -- for I am one
Whom men love not,-- and yet regret,
Unlike this day, which, when the sun
Shall on its stainless glory set,
Will linger, though enjoyed, like joy in memory yet.


Scheme AXBCBBDBDD AEFEFFFFFF AGHGHHIHII JKIKCCLCLF JMFMFFNFNN
Poetic Form
Metre 1 01110111 01110101 11010101 01010101 01101111 01111 110011101 01010101 0101011111 1 110111 1101011 11010101 110101101 11010101 01010110 11011001 010111010 1111011101010 1 01111111 11011101 11100101 0100101 01110101 1111011110 10111101 101101110 1111111001010 1 11010111 101010101 111110101 01010111 11110111 11111111 01110011 11110101 1101101110100 1 11011101 11111111 11111111 01110101 11011111 11110101 01111101 11110101 1101011101001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,706
Words 322
Sentences 13
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Lines Amount 50
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 263
Words per stanza (avg) 63
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 04, 2023

1:38 min read
204

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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