Analysis of A Flight of Wild Ducks
Charles Harpur 1813 (Windsor) – 1868 (Australia)
Far up the River-hark! 'tls the loud shock
Deadened by distance, of some Fowler's gun:
And as into the stillness of the scene
It wastes now with a dull vibratory boom,
Look where, fast widening up at either end
Out of the sinuous valley of the waters,
And o'er the intervenient forest, - up
Against the open heaven, a long dark line
Comes hitherward stretching-a vast Flight of Ducks!
Following the windings of the vale, and still
Enlarging lengthwise, and in places too
Oft breaking into solitary dots,
How swiftly onwards comes it - till at length,
The River, reaching through a group of hills,
Off leads it, - out of sight. But not for long:
For, wheeling ever with the water's course,
Here into sudden view it comes again
Sweeping and swarming round the nearest point!
And first now, a swift airy rush is heard
Approaching momently; - then all at once
There passes a keen-cutting, gusty tumult
Of strenuous pinions, with a streaming mass
Of instantaneous skiey streaks; each streak
Evolving with a lateral flirt, and thence
Entangling as it were, - so rapidly
A thousand wings outpointingly dispread
In passing tiers, seem, looked at from beneath,
With rushing intermixtures to involve
Each other as they beat. Thus seen o'erhead
Even while we speak-ere we have spoken, - lo!
The living cloud is onward many a rood.
Tracking as 'twere in the smooth stream below
The multifarious shadow of itself
Far coming-present-and far gone at once!
The senses vainly struggle to retain
The impression of an Image (as the same)
So swift and manifold: For now again
A long dark line upon the utmost verge
Of the horizon, steeping still, it sinks
At length into the landscape; where yet seen
Though dimly, with a wide and scattering sweep
It fetches eastward, and in column so
Dapples along the steep face of the ridge
There banking the turned River. Now it drops
Below the fringing oaks - but to arise
Once more, with a quick circling gleam, as touched
By the slant sunshine, and then disappear
As instantaneously, - there settling down
Upon the reedy bosom of the water.
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011011 111011101 0101010101 11110111 11110011101 11010101010 01001101 01010100111 111001111 1000110101 010100101 110011001 1101011111 0101010111 1111111111 1101010101 1011011101 1001010101 0110110111 01011111 11001101010 1100110101 101001111 01010100101 0101101100 010111 0101111101 1101101 110111111 10111111101 01011101001 1011001101 011101 1101001111 0101010101 00101110101 110101101 011101011 100101111 110101111 11010101001 1101000101 101011101 1100110111 010111101 11101100111 10110101 10100011001 01010101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,021 |
Words | 362 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 49 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,632 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 360 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 24, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 128 Views
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"A Flight of Wild Ducks" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5108/a-flight-of-wild-ducks>.
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