Analysis of The Doomed Ship

William Morris 1834 (Walthamstow) – 1896 (London)



The doomed ship drives on helpless through the sea,
All that the mariners may do is done
And death is left for men to gaze upon,
While side by side two friends sit silently;
Friends once, foes once, and now by death made free
Of Love and Hate, of all things lost or won;
Yet still the wonder of that strife bygone
Clouds all the hope or horror that may be.

Thus, Sorrow, are we sitting side by side
Amid this welter of the grey despair,
Nor have we images of foul or fair
To vex, save of thy kissed face of a bride,
Thy scornful face of tears when I was tried,
And failed neath pain I was not made to bear.


Scheme ABXAABXA CDDCCD
Poetic Form
Metre 0111110101 1101001111 0111111101 1111111100 1111011111 1101111111 110101111 1101110111 1101110111 0111010101 1111001111 1111111101 1101111111 0111111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 614
Words 125
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 235
Words per stanza (avg) 62
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
105

William Morris

William Morris, Mayor of Galway, 1527-28. more…

All William Morris poems | William Morris Books

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