Analysis of The Stranger In Louisiana
Felicia Dorothea Hemans 1793 (Liverpool, Lancashire) – 1835 (Dublin, County Dublin)
We saw thee, O stranger, and wept!
We look'd for the youth of the sunny glance,
Whose step was the fleetest in chase or dance!
The light of his eye was a joy to see,
The path of his arrows a storm to flee!
But there came a voice from a distant shore:
He was call'd-he is found 'midst his tribe no more!
He is not in his place when the night-fires burn,
But we look for him still-he will yet return!
-His brother sat with a drooping brow
In the gloom of the shadowing cypress bough,
We rous'd him-we bade him no longer pine,
For we heard a step-but the step was thine.
We saw thee, O stranger, and wept!
We look'd for the maid of the mournful song,
Mournful, though sweet-she hath left us long!
We told her the youth of her love was gone,
And she went forth to seek him-she pass'd alone;
We hear not her voice when the woods are still,
From the bower where it sang, like a silvery rill.
The joy of her sire with her smile is fled,
The winter is white on his lonely head,
He hath none by his side when the wilds we track,
He hath none when we rest-yet she comes not back!
We look'd for her eye on the feast to shine,
For her breezy step-but the step was thine!
We saw thee, O stranger, and wept!
We look'd for the chief who hath left the spear
And the bow of his battles forgotten here!
We look'd for the hunter, whose bride's lament
On the wind of the forest at eve is sent:
We look'd for the first-born, whose mother's cry
Sounds wild and shrill through the midnight sky!
-Where are they?-thou 'rt seeking some distant coast-
Oh, ask of them, stranger!-send back the lost!
Tell them we mourn by the dark blue streams,
Tell them our lives but of them are dreams!
Tell, how we sat in the gloom to pine,
And to watch for a step-but the step was thine!
Scheme | Abbccddeeffgg Ahhxxiijjkkgg Axxllmmxxnngg |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111001 1110110101 111010111 0111110111 0111100111 1110110101 11111111111 111011101101 11111111101 110110101 00110100101 1111111101 1110110111 11111001 1110110101 101111111 1100110111 01111111101 1110110111 1010111101001 01101010111 0101111101 11111110111 11111111111 1110110111 1010110111 11111001 1110111101 00111100101 1110101101 10110101111 1110111101 11011011 11111101101 1111101101 111110111 1110111111 111100111 01110110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,718 |
Words | 349 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 13, 13 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 442 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:48 min read
- 44 Views
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"The Stranger In Louisiana" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13623/the-stranger-in-louisiana>.
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