Analysis of By The Old Pagoda Anchorage
Cicely Fox Smith 1882 (Lymm, Cheshire) – 1954 (Bow, Devon)
By the old Pagoda Anchorage they lay full fifteen strong,
And their spars were like a forest, and their names were like a song,
Fiery Cross
and
Falcon
there
Lay with
Spindrift
, doomed and fair,
And
Sir Lancelot
of a hundred famous fights with wind and wave:
Belted Will
and
Hallowe'en
With
Leander
there were seen,
And
Ariel
and
Titania
and
Robin Hood
the brave:
Thyatira
of the lovely name and proud
Thermopylae
,
By the old Pagoda Anchorage when clippers sailed the sea,
Racing home to London River -
Carry on for London River -
Crack her on for London River with her chests of China tea!
By the old Pagoda Anchorage (it's many a year ago!)
A sight it was to see them with their decks like drifted snow,
And their brasses winking bright,
And the gleaming gold and white
Of the carven kings and maidens on each slim and soaring bow,
And the high and slender spars
Humming shanties to the stars,
And the hulls whose speed and staunchness are a dead man's secret now -
The ships so brave and beautiful that never more shall be,
By the old Pagoda Anchorage when clippers sailed the sea,
Racing home to London River -
Crack her on for London River -
Carry on for London River with her chests of China tea!
By the old Pagoda Anchorage the clippers lie no more,
There is silence on the river, there is quiet on the shore,
And the silted channels seem
Still to murmur as in dream
Of the tea ships in their glory, lifting sea-ward on the tide,
All the strong and fair and fleet,
By those shores that used to meet,
And the valiant master mariners that walked their decks in pride,
By the old Pagoda Anchorage when clippers sailed the sea,
Logging fourteen on a bowline, ay, and seventeen running free,
Racing home for London River -
Crack her on for London River -
Carry on for London River with her chests of China tea!
Scheme | aa bCxdecdCxf gCh eihCxCxCxf dxg JIij kkllmbxmjJIIJ nnoopqqpJjiIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101010100111011 011010100110101 1001 0 10 1 11 1 101 0 110 10101011101 101 0 01 1 010 101 0 100 0 010 0 101 01 1 1010101 1 1 101010100110101 10111010 10111010 101110101011101 1010101001100101 01111111111101 0110101 0010101 10110101110101 0010101 1010101 00111011011101 01110100110111 101010100110101 10111010 10111010 101110101011101 101010100010111 111010101110101 001101 1110101 101101101011101 1010101 1111111 001010100111101 101010100110101 1011101010101101 10111010 10111010 101110101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,773 |
Words | 340 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 10, 3, 10, 8, 13, 13 |
Lines Amount | 59 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 204 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 138 Views
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"By The Old Pagoda Anchorage" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42746/by-the-old-pagoda-anchorage>.
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