Analysis of Fairy Sketch
William Lisle Bowles 1762 (King's Sutton) – 1850
There was a morrice on the moonlight plain,
And music echoed in the woody glade,
For fay-like forms, as of Titania's train,
Upon a summer eve, beneath the shade
Of Netley's ivied ruins, to the sound
Of sprightly minstrelsy did beat the ground:--
Come, take hands! and lightly move,
While our boat, in yonder cove,
Rests upon the darkening sea;
Come, take hands, and follow me!
Netley! thy dim and desolated fane
Hath heard, perhaps, the spirits of the night
Shrieking, at times, amid the wind and rain;
Or haply, when the full-orbed moon shone bright,
Thy glimmering aisles have echoed to the song
Of fairy Mab, who led her shadowy masque along.
Now, as to the sprightly sound
Of moonlight minstrelsy we beat the ground;
From the pale nooks, in accent clear,
Now, methinks, her voice I hear,
Sounding o'er the darksome sea;
Come, take hands, and follow me!
Here, beneath the solemn wood,
When faintly-blue is all the sky,
And the moon is still on high,
To the murmurs of the flood,
To the glimpses of the night,
We perform our airy rite;--
Care and pain to us unknown,
To the darkening seas are flown.
Hear no more life's fretful noise,
Heed not here pale Envy's sting,
Far from life's distempered joys;
To the waters murmuring,
To the shadows of the sky,
To the moon that rides on high,
To the glimpses of the night,
We perform our airy rite,
While care and pain, to us unknown,
To the darkening seas are flown.
Scheme | ababccxxdD aeaeffccxxdD xggxEEhH ijijggEEhH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 11011011 0101000101 11111111 0101010101 11110101 11011101 1110101 11010101 10101001 1110101 111011 1101010101 1011010101 111011111 11001110101 1101110100101 1110101 1111101 10110011 110111 1010011 1110101 1010101 11011101 0011111 1010101 1010101 10110101 1011101 10100111 1111101 111111 11111 1010100 101101 1011111 1010101 10110101 11011101 10100111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,401 |
Words | 261 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 12, 8, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 272 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 72 Views
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"Fairy Sketch" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40872/fairy-sketch>.
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