Analysis of Dawn in the Mountains
Charles Harpur 1813 (Windsor) – 1868 (Australia)
It is the morning star, arising slow
Out of yon hill’s dark bulk, as she were born
Of its desire for day; then glides she forth
And into the dim sky, there leaving still
A whiteness in her wake that whitens more
As she ascends, till all the gloomy woods
Are touched along their multiformous lines
By a faint gleaming azure, creeping on:
A few thin stripes of fleecy clouds lie long
And motionless above the eastern steeps,
Like threads of silver lace; till suddenly,
Out from the flushing centre to the ends
On either hand, their lustrous layers become
Dipt all in crimson streaked with pink and gold;
And then at last are edged as with a band
Of crystal all on fire. Meanwhile the stars,
Those golden children of eternity,
Have all withdrawn within the Invisible;
That skiey gleam and azure prevalence
Which first bespoke the dawn works out and down
Ev’n to the grassy ground; till all the trees,
Clearly defined to their minutest sprays,
Stand in unspeakable beauty. Long before
The sun himself is seen, off towards the west
A range of mighty summits more and more
Blaze each like a huge cresset in the keen
Clear atmosphere. As if the spirit of light
Advancing swiftly thence, and eastward still,
Kept kindling them in quick succession, till
The universal company of cones
And peaks pyramidal stand burning all
With rosy fires like a wide-ranging circ
Of mighty altars, where the spirit of man
Can feel the presence of that greater soul
Which makes all nature, and of which itself
Is but an effluence, however far
Projected, or detached by tract of time;
Even as a sunbeam’s fountain in the sun,
Whether it hit the earth or glance away
Into infinitude—shooting on for ever.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIFJKLMNOJPQRSTEUEVWDDXYIZ1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1101010101 1111111101 11010111111 0010111101 010001111 1101110101 1101111 1011010101 0111110111 0100010101 1111011100 1101010101 11011101001 1101011101 0111111101 1101110101 1101010100 11010100100 111010100 111011101 1101011101 10011111 10010010101 01011110101 0111010101 111011001 1101101011 0101010101 1101010101 001010011 0101001101 11010101101 11010101011 1101011101 1111001101 111100101 0101011111 1010110001 1011011101 011101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,653 |
Words | 299 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,343 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 297 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:29 min read
- 116 Views
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"Dawn in the Mountains" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5131/dawn-in-the-mountains>.
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