Analysis of Ships that Pass in the Night



Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;  
   I look far out into the pregnant night,
  Where I can hear the solemn booming gun
   And catch the gleaming of a random light,
  That tells me that the ship I seek
is passing, passing.
  My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing;
   For I would hail and check that ship of ships.
  I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud,
   My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips,
 And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing.
 O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing,
  O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark!
 Is there no hope for me? Is there no way
  That I may sight and check that speeding bark
 Which out of sight and sound is passing, passing?


Scheme ABCBDAAEFEAAGHGA
Poetic Form
Metre 10010111110 1111010101 1111010101 0101010101 11110111 11010 1101111111 1111011111 1111010101 1111011111 0111111101010 11111101010 1111111101 1111111111 1111011101 11110111010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 720
Words 139
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 538
Words per stanza (avg) 137
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
106

Paul Laurence Dunbar

 · 1872 · Dayton, Ohio

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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