Analysis of The Raven Days

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



Our hearths are gone out and our hearts are broken,
 And but the ghosts of homes to us remain,
And ghastly eyes and hollow sighs give token
 From friend to friend of an unspoken pain.

O Raven days, dark Raven days of sorrow,
 Bring to us in your whetted ivory beaks
Some sign out of the far land of To-morrow,
 Some strip of sea-green dawn, some orange streaks.

Ye float in dusky files, forever croaking.
 Ye chill our manhood with your dreary shade.
Dumb in the dark, not even God invoking,
 We lie in chains, too weak to be afraid.

O Raven days, dark Raven days of sorrow,
 Will ever any warm light come again?
Will ever the lit mountains of To-morrow
 Begin to gleam athwart the mournful plain?


Scheme abab Cdcd efef Cxcb
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 1011110101110 0101111101 01010101110 1111110101 11011101110 11101101001 11110111110 1111111101 1101101010 1110111101 10011101010 1101111101 11011101110 1101011101 11001101110 0111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 690
Words 131
Sentences 8
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 135
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
123

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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