Analysis of The Lost Pleiad
William Gilmore Simms 1806 (Charleston) – 1870 (Charleston)
NOT in the sky,
Where it was seen
So long in eminence of light serene,—
Nor on the white tops of the glistering wave,
Nor down in mansions of the hidden deep,
Though beautiful in green
And crystal, its great caves of mystery,—
Shall the bright watcher have
Her place, and, as of old, high station keep!
Gone! gone!
Oh! nevermore, to cheer
The mariner, who holds his course alone
On the Atlantic, through the weary night,
When the stars turn to watchers, and do sleep,
Shall it again appear,
With the sweet-loving certainty of light,
Down shining on the shut eyes of the deep!
The upward-looking shepherd on the hills
Of Chaldea, night-returning with his flocks,
He wonders why his beauty doth not blaze,
Gladding his gaze,—
And, from his dreary watch along the rocks,
Guiding him homeward o’er the perilous ways!
How stands he waiting still, in a sad maze,
Much wondering, while the drowsy silence fills
The sorrowful vault!—how lingers, in the hope that night
May yet renew the expected and sweet light,
So natural to his sight!
And lone,
Where, at the first, in smiling love she shone,
Brood the once happy circle of bright stars:
How should they dream, until her fate was known,
That they were ever confiscate to death?
That dark oblivion the pure beauty mars,
And, like the earth, its common bloom and breath,
That they should fall from high;
Their lights grow blasted by a touch, and die,
All their concerted springs of harmony
Snapt rudely, and the generous music gone!
Ah! still the strain
Of wailing sweetness fills the saddening sky;
The sister stars, lamenting in their pain
That one of the selectest ones must die,—
Must vanish, when most lovely, from the rest!
Alas! ’t is ever thus the destiny.
Even Rapture’s song hath evermore a tone
Of wailing, as for bliss too quickly gone.
The hope most precious is the soonest lost,
The flower most sweet is first to feel the frost.
Are not all short-lived things the loveliest?
And, like the pale star, shooting down the sky,
Look they not ever brightest, as they fly
From the lone sphere they blest!
Scheme | ABBXCBDXC EFGHCFHC IJKKJKKIHHH GGLGMLMAADE NANAODGEPPHAAO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001 1111 1101001101 110111011 1101010101 110001 0101111100 101101 0101111101 11 11011 0100111101 1001010101 1011110011 110101 1011010011 1101011101 0101010101 111010111 1101110111 1011 0111010101 10110101001 1111010011 11001010101 0100111000111 11010010011 1100111 01 1101010111 1011010111 1111010111 110101011 11010001101 0101110101 111111 1111010101 1101011100 11000100101 1101 11010101001 0101010011 11101111 1101110101 01111010100 101111001 1101111101 0111010101 01011111101 11111101 0101110101 1111010111 101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,131 |
Words | 371 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 8, 11, 11, 14 |
Lines Amount | 53 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 321 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:51 min read
- 115 Views
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"The Lost Pleiad" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40632/the-lost-pleiad>.
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