Analysis of The Castaway
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
Obscurest night involv'd the sky,
Th' Atlantic billows roar'd,
When such a destin'd wretch as I,
Wash'd headlong from on board,
Of friends, of hope, of all bereft,
His floating home for ever left.
No braver chief could Albion boast
Than he with whom he went,
Nor ever ship left Albion's coast,
With warmer wishes sent.
He lov'd them both, but both in vain,
Nor him beheld, nor her again.
Not long beneath the whelming brine,
Expert to swim, he lay;
Nor soon he felt his strength decline,
Or courage die away;
But wag'd with death a lasting strife,
Supported by despair of life.
He shouted: nor his friends had fail'd
To check the vessel's course,
But so the furious blast prevail'd,
That, pitiless perforce,
They left their outcast mate behind,
And scudded still before the wind.
Some succour yet they could afford;
And, such as storms allow,
The cask, the coop, the floated cord,
Delay'd not to bestow.
But he (they knew) nor ship, nor shore,
Whate'er they gave, should visit more.
Nor, cruel as it seem'd, could he
Their haste himself condemn,
Aware that flight, in such a sea,
Alone could rescue them;
Yet bitter felt it still to die
Deserted, and his friends so nigh.
He long survives, who lives an hour
In ocean, self-upheld;
And so long he, with unspent pow'r,
His destiny repell'd;
And ever, as the minutes flew,
Entreated help, or cried--Adieu!
At length, his transient respite past,
His comrades, who before
Had heard his voice in ev'ry blast,
Could catch the sound no more.
For then, by toil subdued, he drank
The stifling wave, and then he sank.
No poet wept him: but the page
Of narrative sincere;
That tells his name, his worth, his age,
Is wet with Anson's tear.
And tears by bards or heroes shed
Alike immortalize the dead.
I therefore purpose not, or dream,
Descanting on his fate,
To give the melancholy theme
A more enduring date:
But misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case.
No voice divine the storm allay'd,
No light propitious shone;
When, snatch'd from all effectual aid,
We perish'd, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelm'd in deeper gulfs than he.
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEXX FGFGHH IJIJKK BXBXLL MNMNAA XOXOPP QLQLRR SXSXTT UVUVWW XYXYMM |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101 11010101 11010111 11111 11111101 11011101 110111001 111111 1101111 110101 11111101 1111001 1101011 101111 11111101 110101 11110101 01010111 11011111 110101 110100101 110001 1111101 0110101 1111101 011101 01010101 011101 11111111 10111101 11011111 110101 01110101 011101 11011111 01001111 110111110 010101 011110111 110001 01010101 111101 11110101 11101 1111011 110111 11110111 01010111 11011101 110001 11111111 11111 01111101 01010001 1110111 1111 1101001 010101 110010111 11000101 11010101 110101 111111 110101 11010101 01010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,279 |
Words | 374 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 147 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 1:58 min read
- 197 Views
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"The Castaway" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40126/the-castaway>.
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