Analysis of Storm
William Gay 1865 (Scotland) – 1897
I love not when the oily seas
Heave huge and slow beneath the sun,
When decks are hot, and dead the breeze,
And wits are dropping one by one.
But when the South wind fiercely breaks
His frozen bonds and rushes forth
Across the roaring sea and shakes
His icy spear against the North;
When breakers thunder on the lee,
When timbers crash and sails are rent,
When wild and louder grows the sea,
And black the reeling firmament;
O then at last my soul awakes,
A thousand joys within her rise,
And all the bounds of sense she breaks
To soar exulting through the skies.
I love not when my ship of Fate
Glides on before some fragrant breeze,
And slowly tracks with costly freight
The sapphire deeps of prosperous seas.
But when beneath the sky of death
She staggers through the seas of pain,
When passion's hot tempestuous breath
Through shroud and tackle shrieks amain,
When deepening glooms the day o'erwhelm,
And all is one wild wreck of form,
O then resolved I grasp the helm
And proudly guide her through the storm.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFEFAGCGHAHAIJIBKKKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 11010101 11110101 01110111 11011101 11010101 01010101 11010101 11010101 11010111 11010101 010101 1111111 01010101 01011111 11010101 11111111 11011101 01011101 0100111001 11010111 11010111 1111001 1101011 11001011 01111111 11011101 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 996 |
Words | 187 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 808 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 185 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 101 Views
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"Storm" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40610/storm>.
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