Analysis of We Fish
Herman Melville 1819 – 1891
We fish, we fish, we merrily swim,
We care not for friend nor for foe.
Our fins are stout,
Our tails are out,
As through the seas we go.
Fish, Fish, we are fish with red gills;
Naught disturbs us, our blood is at zero:
We are buoyant because of our bags,
Being many, each fish is a hero.
We care not what is it, this life
That we follow, this phantom unknown;
To swim, it's exceedingly pleasant,--
So swim away, making a foam.
This strange looking thing by our side,
Not for safety, around it we flee:--
Its shadow's so shady, that's all,--
We only swim under its lee.
And as for the eels there above,
And as for the fowls of the air,
We care not for them nor their ways,
As we cheerily glide afar!
We fish, we fish, we merrily swim,
We care not for friend nor for foe:
Our fins are stout,
Our tails are out,
As through the seas we go.
Scheme | ABCCB xbxbxxxxxdxdxxxx ABCCB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111001 11111111 10111 10111 110111 11111111 10111011110 1110011101 1010111010 11111111 111011001 111010010 11011001 111011101 111001111 1111011 11011011 01101101 01101101 11111111 111101 111111001 11111111 10111 10111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 818 |
Words | 172 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 16, 5 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 207 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 70 Views
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"We Fish" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19139/we-fish>.
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