Analysis of Sea

Katherine Mansfield 1888 (Wellington) – 1923 (Fontainebleau, Île-de-France)



The Sea called--I lay on the rocks and said:
"I am come."
She mocked and showed her teeth,
Stretching out her long green arms.
"Go away!" she thundered.
"Then tell me what I am to do," I begged.
"If I leave you, you will not be silent,
But cry my name in the cities
And wistfully entreat me in the plains and forests;
All else I forsake to come to you--what must I do?"
"Never have I uttered your name," snarled the Sea.
"There is no more of me in your body
Than the little salt tears you are frightened of shedding.
What can you know of my love on your brown rock
     pillow....
Come closer."


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKKLMNO
Poetic Form
Metre 0111110101 111 110101 1010111 101110 1111111111 1111111110 11110010 010011001010 1110111111111 101110111001 1111110110 1010111110110 11111111111 10 110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 587
Words 124
Sentences 11
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 438
Words per stanza (avg) 116
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
155

Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. more…

All Katherine Mansfield poems | Katherine Mansfield Books

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