Analysis of The Sea-Change
Ernest Christopher Dowson 1867 – 1900
Where river and ocean meet in a great tempestuous frown,
Beyond the bar, where on the dunes the white-capped rollers break;
Above, one windmill stands forlorn on the arid, grassy down:
I will set my sail on a stormy day and cross the bar and seek
That I have sought and never found, the exquisite one crown,
Which crowns one day with all its calm the passionate and the weak.
When the mad winds are unreined, wilt thou not storm, my sea?
(I have ever loved thee so, I have ever done thee wrong
In drear terrestrial ways.) When I trust myself to thee
With a last great hope, arise and sing thine ultimate, great song
Sung to so many better men, O sing at last to me,
That which when once a man has heard, he heeds not over long.
I will bend my sail when the great day comes; thy kisses on my face
Shall seal all things that are old, outworn; and anger and regret
Shall fade as the dreams and days shall fade, and in thy salt embrace,
When thy fierce caresses blind mine eyes and my limbs grow stark and set,
All that I know in all my mind shall no more have a place:
The weary ways of men and one woman I shall forget.
Scheme | AXABAB CDCDCD EFEFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001010011001 01011101011101 01111011010101 1111110101010101 11110101010011 111111110100001 101111111111 11101111110111 0101001111111 101110101110011 11110101111111 11110111111101 1111110111110111 11111111010001 111010111001101 1110101110111101 11110111111101 01011101101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,108 |
Words | 224 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 48 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 289 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 74 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 30, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 62 Views
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