Analysis of Cadenabbia. Lake Of Como. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Fourth)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
No sound of wheels or hoof-beat breaks
The silence of the summer day,
As by the loveliest of all lakes
I while the idle hours away.
I pace the leafy colonnade,
Where level branches of the plane
Above me weave a roof of shade
Impervious to the sun and rain.
At times a sudden rush of air
Flutters the lazy leaves o'erhead,
And gleams of sunshine toss and flare
Like torches down the path I tread.
By Somariva's garden gate
I make the marble stairs my seat,
And hear the water, as I wait,
Lapping the steps beneath my feet.
The undulation sinks and swells
Along the stony parapets,
And far away the floating bells
Tinkle upon the fisher's nets.
Silent and slow, by tower and town
The freighted barges come and go,
Their pendent shadows gliding down
By town and tower submerged below.
The hills sweep upward from the shore,
With villas scattered one by one
Upon their wooded spurs, and lower
Bellaggio blazing in the sun.
And dimly seen, a tangled mass
Of walls and woods, of light and shade,
Stands, beckoning up the Stelvio Pass,
Varenna with its white cascade.
I ask myself, Is this a dream?
Will it all vanish into air?
Is there a land of such supreme
And perfect beauty anywhere?
Sweet vision! Do not fade away;
Linger, until my heart shall take
Into itself the summer day,
And all the beauty of the lake;
Linger until upon my brain
Is stamped an image of the scene,
Then fade into the air again,
And be as if thou hadst not been.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EBEX FGFG HAHX IJIJ XKXK LCLC MEME BNBN DXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (82%) |
Metre | 11111111 01010101 1101111 110101001 1101001 11010101 01110111 010010101 11010111 1001011 0111101 11010111 11101 11010111 01010111 10010111 01101 010101 01010101 10010101 100111001 0110101 111101 110100101 01110101 11010111 011101010 110001 01010101 11011101 11001011 111101 1111101 11110011 11011101 0011010 11011101 10011111 01010101 01010101 10010111 11110101 11010101 01111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,406 |
Words | 269 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 267 Views
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"Cadenabbia. Lake Of Como. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Fourth)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18538/cadenabbia.-lake-of-como.-%28birds-of-passage.-flight-the-fourth%29>.
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