Analysis of Nacken - Water Demon
Erik Johan Stagnelius 1793 (Öland) – 1823 (Stockholm)
The evening is festooned with golden clouds
the fairies dance in the meadow
and the leaf-crowned Nacken
plays his fiddle in the silvery brook.
Little boy in the brush on the bank
resting in the violet vapor
hears the noise from the chilly water
calls out in the still night.
"Poor old fellow, why do you play?
will it take the pain away?
you bring the woods and the fields to life
but you'll never be a child of God.
Paradise's moonlit nights
eden's flower-crowned plains
angels of the light on high--
never to be beheld by your eye."
Tears stream down the old man's face
down he dives into the rapids
the fiddle silences.
And the Nacken will never
play again in the silvery brook.
Scheme | XXXAXBBX CCXX XXDD XXXBA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010111101 0101001 00111 1110001001 101001101 100010010 101101010 110011 11101111 1110101 110100111 111010111 111 11011 1010111 10111111 1110111 11101010 010100 001110 101001001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 669 |
Words | 129 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 134 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 256 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Nacken - Water Demon" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12758/nacken---water-demon>.
Discuss this Erik Johan Stagnelius poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In