Analysis of To the River Charles
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
River! that in silence windest
Through the meadows, bright and free,
Till at length thy rest thou findest
In the bosom of the sea!
Four long years of mingled feeling,
Half in rest, and half in strife,
I have seen thy waters stealing
Onward, like the stream of life.
Thou hast taught me, Silent River!
Many a lesson, deep and long;
Thou hast been a generous giver;
I can give thee but a song.
Oft in sadness and in illness,
I have watched thy current glide,
Till the beauty of its stillness
Overflowed me, like a tide.
And in better hours and brighter,
When I saw thy waters gleam,
I have felt my heart beat lighter,
And leap onward with thy stream.
Not for this alone I love thee,
Nor because thy waves of blue
From celestial seas above thee
Take their own celestial hue.
Where yon shadowy woodlands hide thee,
And thy waters disappear,
Friends I love have dwelt beside thee,
And have made thy margin dear.
More than this;--thy name reminds me
Of three friends, all true and tried;
And that name, like magic, binds me
Closer, closer to thy side.
Friends my soul with joy remembers!
How like quivering flames they start,
When I fan the living embers
On the hearth-stone of my heart!
'T is for this, thou Silent River!
That my spirit leans to thee;
Thou hast been a generous giver,
Take this idle song from me.
Scheme | abab cdcd efEf gaga eheh bibi bjbj baba kaka ebEb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1010101 101101 1111111 0010101 11111010 1010101 11111010 1010111 11111010 10010101 111010010 1111101 10100010 1111101 10101110 011101 001010010 1111101 11111110 0110111 11101111 1011111 10101011 1110101 11100111 011001 11111011 0111101 11111011 1111101 01111011 1010111 11111010 11100111 11101010 1011111 111111010 1110111 111010010 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,313 |
Words | 245 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
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 30, 2023
- 1:13 min read
- 118 Views
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"To the River Charles" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18971/to-the-river-charles>.
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