Analysis of Endymion
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
The rising moon has hid the stars;
Her level rays, like golden bars,
Lie on the landscape green,
With shadows brown between.
And silver white the river gleams,
As if Diana, in her dreams,
Had dropt her silver bow
Upon the meadows low.
On such a tranquil night as this,
She woke Endymion with a kiss,
When, sleeping in the grove,
He dreamed not of her love.
Like Dian's kiss, unasked, unsought,
Love gives itself, but is not bought;
Nor voice, nor sound betrays
Its deep, impassioned gaze.
It comes,--the beautiful, the free,
The crown of all humanity,--
In silence and alone
To seek the elected one.
It lifts the boughs, whose shadows deep
Are Life's oblivion, the soul's sleep,
And kisses the closed eyes
Of him, who slumbering lies.
O weary hearts! O slumbering eyes!
O drooping souls, whose destinies
Are fraught with fear and pain,
Ye shall be loved again!
No one is so accursed by fate,
No one so utterly desolate,
But some heart, though unknown,
Responds unto his own.
Responds,--as if with unseen wings,
An angel touched its quivering strings;
And whispers, in its song,
"'Where hast thou stayed so long?"
Scheme | AABB CCXX DDXX EEFF XEGX HHII IXXX EEGG JJKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (44%) |
Metre | 01011101 01011101 11011 11101 01010101 11010001 110101 01011 11010111 111101 110001 111101 11111 11011111 111101 110101 11010001 01110100 010001 1100101 1101111 110100011 010011 1111001 110111001 11011100 111101 111101 1111111 111100100 111101 011011 01111011 110111001 010011 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,139 |
Words | 201 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
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"Endymion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18575/endymion>.
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