Analysis of Storm On Lake Asquam
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
A cloud, like that the old-time Hebrew saw
On Carmel prophesying rain, began
To lift itself o'er wooded Cardigan,
Growing and blackening. Suddenly, a flaw
Of chill wind menaced; then a strong blast beat
Down the long valley's murmuring pines, and woke
The noon-dream of the sleeping lake, and broke
Its smooth steel mirror at the mountains' feet.
Thunderous and vast, a fire-veined darkness swept
Over the rough pine-bearded Asquam range;
A wraith of tempest, wonderful and strange,
From peak to peak the cloudy giant stepped.
One moment, as if challenging the storm,
Chocorua's tall, defiant sentinel
Looked from his watch-tower; then the shadow fell,
And the wild rain-drift blotted out his form.
And over all the still unhidden sun,
Weaving its light through slant-blown veils of rain,
Smiled on the trouble, as hope smiles on pain;
And, when the tumult and the strife were done,
With one foot on the lake and one on land,
Framing within his crescent's tinted streak
A far-off picture of the Melvin peak,
Spent broken clouds the rainbow's angel spanned.
Scheme | AXBA CDDC EFFE GXXG BHHB IJJI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 0111011101 1011101 11011010100 10010010001 1111010111 10110100101 0111010101 1111010101 100010101101 100111011 0111010001 1111010101 1101110001 11010100 1111101011 0011110111 01010111 1011111111 1101011111 0101000101 1111010111 100111101 0111010101 110101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,041 |
Words | 178 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 140 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 45 Views
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"Storm On Lake Asquam" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23039/storm-on-lake-asquam>.
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