Analysis of Zermat: To the Matterhorn (June-July, 1897)
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Thirty-two years since, up against the sun,
Seven shapes, thin atomies to lower sight,
Labouringly leapt and gained thy gabled height,
And four lives paid for what the seven had won.
They were the first by whom the deed was done,
And when I look at thee, my mind takes flight
To that day's tragic feat of manly might,
As though, till then, of history thou hadst none.
Yet ages ere men topped thee, late and soon
Thou watch'dst each night the planets lift and lower;
Thou gleam'dst to Joshua's pausing sun and moon,
And brav'dst the tokening sky when Caesar's power
Approached its bloody end: yea, saw'st that Noon
When darkness filled the earth till the ninth hour.
Scheme | ABBA ABBA CDCDCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011110101 101111101 11011101 01111101011 1001110111 0111111111 1111011101 11111100111 1101111101 11110101010 111110101 0101111010 01110111111 11010110110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 673 |
Words | 121 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 174 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 141 Views
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"Zermat: To the Matterhorn (June-July, 1897)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36619/zermat%3A-to-the-matterhorn-%28june-july%2C-1897%29>.
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