Analysis of In The Harbour: Chimes

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



Sweet chimes! that in the loneliness of night
Salute the passing hour, and in the dark
And silent chambers of the household mark
The movements of the myriad orbs of light!
Through my closed eyelids, by the inner sight,
I see the constellations in the arc
Of their great circles moving on, and hark!
I almost hear them singing in their flight.
Better than sleep it is to lie awake,
O'er-canopied by the vast starry dome
Of the immeasurable sky; to feel
The slumbering world sink under us, and make
Hardly an eddy,--a mere rush of foam
On the great sea beneath a sinking keel.


Scheme ABBAABBACDECDE
Poetic Form
Metre 1110010011 01010100001 010101011 01010100111 111110101 110010001 1111010101 111110011 1011111101 101101101 100100111 01001110101 1011001111 1011010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 569
Words 108
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 453
Words per stanza (avg) 105
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
72

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

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