Analysis of Version Of A Fragment Of Simonides

William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)



The night winds howled--the billows dashed
Against the tossing chest;
And Danae to her broken heart
Her slumbering infant pressed.

'My little child'--in tears she said--
'To wake and weep is mine,
But thou canst sleep--thou dost not know
Thy mother's lot, and thine.

'The moon is up, the moonbeams smile--
They tremble on the main;
But dark, within my floating cell,
To me they smile in vain.

'Thy folded mantle wraps thee warm,
Thy clustering locks are dry,
Thou dost not hear the shrieking gust,
Nor breakers booming high.

'As o'er thy sweet unconscious face
A mournful watch I keep,
I think, didst thou but know thy fate,
How thou wouldst also weep.

'Yet, dear one, sleep, and sleep, ye winds
That vex the restless brine--
When shall these eyes, my babe, be sealed
As peacefully as thine!'


Scheme XAXA XBXB XCXC XDXD XEXE XBXB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 01110101 010101 0110101 0100101 11010111 110111 11111111 110101 0111011 110101 11011101 111101 11010111 1100111 11110101 110101 11011101 010111 11111111 111101 11110111 110101 11111111 110011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 777
Words 142
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 101
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
115

William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. more…

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