Analysis of Down on the Shore
William Allingham 1824 (Ballyshannon) – 1889 (Hampstead)
Down on the shore, on the sunny shore!
Where the salt smell cheers the land;
Where the tide moves bright under boundless light,
And the surge on the glittering strand;
Where the children wade in the shallow pools,
Or run from the froth in play;
Where the swift little boats with milk-white wings
Are crossing the sapphire bay,
And the ship in full sail, with a fortunate gale,
Holds proudy on her way;
Where the nets are spread on the grass to dry,
And asleep, hard by, the fishermen lie,
Under the tent of the warm blue sky,
With the hushing wave on its golden floor
To sing their lullaby.
Down on the shore, on the stormy shore!
Beset by a growling sea,
Whose mad waves leap on the rocky steep
Like wolves up a traveller's tree;
Where the foam flies wide, and an angry blast
Blows the curlew off, with a screech;
Where the brown sea-wrack, torn up by the roots,
Is flung out of fishes' reach;
And the tall ship rolls on the hidden shoals,
And scatters her planks on the beach;
Where slate and straw through the village spin,
And a cottage fronts the fiercest din
With a sailor's wife sitting sad within,
Hearkening the wind and the water's roar,
Till at last her tears begin.
Scheme | ABXBXCXCXCDDDAD AEXEXFXFXFGGGAG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (27%) |
Metre | 110110101 1011101 1011110101 001101001 1010100101 1110101 1011011111 11001001 001011101001 11101 1011110111 0011101001 100110111 101111101 11110 110110101 0110101 111110101 111011 1011101101 1011101 1011111101 1111101 0011110101 0101101 110110101 001010101 1010110101 10100101 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,184 |
Words | 221 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 15 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 460 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 110 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 63 Views
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"Down on the Shore" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39003/down-on-the-shore>.
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