Analysis of Low Barometer

Robert Seymour Bridges 1844 (Walmer, Kent) – 1930 (Boars Hill, Berkshire)



The south-wind strengthens to a gale,
Across the moon the clouds fly fast,
The house is smitten as with a flail,
The chimney shudders to the blast.

On such a night, when Air has loosed
Its guardian grasp on blood and brain,
Old terrors then of god or ghost
Creep from their caves to life again;

And Reason kens he herits in
A haunted house. Tenants unknown
Assert their squalid lease of sin
With earlier title than his own.

Unbodied presences, the packed
Pollution and remorse of Time,
Slipped from oblivion re-enact
The horrors of unhousehold crime.

Some men would quell the thing with prayer
Whose sightless footsteps pad the floor,
Whose fearful trespass mounts the stair
Or burst the locked forbidden door.

Some have seen corpses long interred
Escape from hallowing control,
Pale charnel forms - nay even have heard
The shrilling of a troubled soul,

That wanders till the dawn has crossed
The dolorous dark, or Earth has wound
Closer her storm-spread cloak, and thrust
The baleful phantoms underground.


Scheme ABAB XXXX CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ XKXK
Poetic Form Quatrain  (86%)
Metre 01110101 01010111 011101101 01010101 11011111 110011101 11011111 11111101 0101110 01011001 01110111 110010111 110001 01000111 110100101 010111 11110111 111101 1101101 11011001 1111011 011101 11111011 0110101 11010111 0111111 10011101 0101010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 987
Words 173
Sentences 7
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 116
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 10, 2023

51 sec read
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Robert Seymour Bridges

Robert Seymour Bridges was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is the author of many well-known hymns. It was through Bridges’ efforts that Gerard Manley Hopkins achieved posthumous fame. more…

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