Analysis of Gulls
Virna Sheard 1862 (Cobourg) – 1943 ( Toronto)
When the mist drives past and the wind blows high,
And the harbour lights are dim--
See where they circle, and dip and fly,
The grey free-lances of wind and sky,
To the water's distant rim!
Like spirits possessed of a fierce delight,
A courage that cannot fail,
They face the breakers--they face the night--
The mad storm-horses are silvery white,
They ride through the bitter gale!
They seem like the souls of the long, long lost,
Who breasted the ocean-main--
Vikings whose vessels were tempest-tossed,
Voyagers who sailed, whatever the cost,
And never came home again.
Or stranger and wilder fancy--it seems
As I hear their wind-torn cry,
No birds fly there through the sun's last gleams,
But the wraiths of hopes--the ghosts of dreams
That the old sea-gods saw die.
When the mist drives past and the wind blows high,
And the harbour lights are dim--
See where they circle, and dip and fly,
The grey free-lances of wind and sky,
To the far horizon's rim.
Scheme | ABAAb cdccd exexx faffa ABAAb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011100111 0010111 111100101 01111101 1010101 1100110101 0101101 110101101 0111011001 1110101 1110110111 1100101 101100101 100111001 0101101 1100101011 1111111 111110111 101110111 1011111 1011100111 0010111 111100101 01111101 1010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 941 |
Words | 170 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 149 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
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"Gulls" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/43570/gulls>.
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