Analysis of Restormel Castle
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
It was the last Chief of Restormel,
He sat within his tower,
Dim burnt the hearth, and pale was the lamp,
For it was the midnight hour.
It was not the sound of a mortal voice,
Though it spoke with a mortal word,
Mid the howl of the wind, and the dash of the wave,
That the Chief of Restormel heard.
He heard a shriek on the midnight wind,
And he heard a dying groan;
Each gust through the sky, that went hurrying by,
Brought his murdered brother's moan.
The dark hearth hissed with the falling rain,
The lamp would burn no more;
But redder and redder the bloodspots grew
That stained the oaken floor.
Then he knew that the voice of his brother's blood
Was crying aloud to heaven;
And he knew that the present hour was one
To the evil spirits given;
And fiendish shapes from the tapestry looked,
And the lightning glared on the band;
" Come," said a voice, and he felt on his heart
The touch of an icy hand.
Fearful, they said, was the face of the dead,
Whom his vassals found next day;
For a clay-cold corse, in his midnight tower,
The last Chief of Restormel lay.
Restormel Castle was one of the principal residences of the Earls of Cornwall. The above verses are
founded on a traditionary story told of its last castellan, or constable.
Scheme | ABXB XCXC XDXD XEXE XFFF XGXG XXBA XA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (27%) |
Metre | 1101111 1101110 110101101 1110110 1110110101 11110101 101101001101 101111 11011011 0110101 11101111001 1110101 011110101 011111 110010011 11011 11110111101 11001110 01110101011 10101010 0101101001 00101101 1101011111 0111101 1011101101 1110111 1011101110 011111 11011101001000101110001101 1010110111111100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,215 |
Words | 234 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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"Restormel Castle" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/44908/restormel-castle>.
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