Analysis of At Michael Sars's Grave

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832 (Kvikne) – 1910 (Paris)



Ever he would roam
Toward th' eternal home;
From the least life deep in ocean
To each gleam of stars in motion,
Worth of all he weighed.
Now the Lord lends aid.

Still he passed beyond,
Softly dreaming; fond
Nature met him as her lover.
God with strength his soul shall cover
'Mid the starry throng
Through the spheres' pure song.

Even here on earth
Harmony's sweet birth-
When discovery new truth sunders,
When the small reveals its wonders-
Filled his soul with song
For the ages long.

Where his watch he kept,
Eyes a hundred swept.
Where millenniums sand assembled,
Where the tiniest life-pulse trembled,
There he sought the clue,
Silent, wise, and true.

In a water glass
Searching he saw pass
All the ocean's life; his thinking
To unfathomed deeps was sinking;
Where lay riddles locked,
There he came and knocked.

Fair our fatherland,
While such faith shall stand!
With an eye so true and tender,
With a sense so fine for splendor
In the small and still,-
Great ends we fulfil!


Scheme AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHFF IIJJKK HHLLMM NNEEXK
Poetic Form
Metre 10111 01110101 10111010 11111010 11111 10111 11101 10101 10111010 11111110 10101 10111 10111 111 10100111 10101110 11111 10101 11111 10101 101001010 101001110 11101 10101 00101 10111 10101110 111110 11101 11101 11010 11111 11111010 10111110 00101 1111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 953
Words 177
Sentences 11
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 129
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

53 sec read
77

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit", becoming the first Norwegian Nobel laureate. Bjørnson is considered to be one of The Four Greats (De Fire Store) among Norwegian writers, the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland. Bjørnson is also celebrated for his lyrics to the Norwegian National Anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet". more…

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