Analysis of A Swarm Of Gnats
Hermann Hesse 1877 (Calw) – 1962 (Montagnola)
Many thousand glittering motes
Crowd forward greedily together
In trembling circles.
Extravagantly carousing away
For a whole hour rapidly vanishing,
They rave, delirious, a shrill whir,
Shivering with joy against death.
While kingdoms, sunk into ruin,
Whose thrones, heavy with gold, instantly scattered
Into night and legend, without leaving a trace,
Have never known so fierce a dancing.
Translated by James Wright
| Scheme | XAXXBAXXXXB X |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 10101001 110100010 010010 100001001 10110100100 110100011 10011011 11010110 11101110010 011010011001 110111010 010111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 406 |
| Words | 62 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 2 |
| Stanza Lengths | 11, 1 |
| Lines Amount | 12 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
| Words per line (avg) | 5 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 172 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
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