Analysis of Incantation
George Parsons Lathrop 1851 (Honolulu) – 1898 (New York)
When the leaves, by thousands thinned,
A thousand times have whirled in the wind,
And the moon, with hollow cheek,
Staring from her hollow height,
Consolation seems to seek
From the dim, reechoing night;
And the fog-streaks dead and white
Lie like ghosts of lost delight
O'er highest earth and lowest sky;
Then, Autumn, work thy witchery!
Strew the ground with poppy-seeds,
And let my bed be hung with weeds,
Growing gaunt and rank and tall,
Drooping o'er me like a pall.
Send thy stealthy, white-eyed mist
Across my brow to turn and twist
Fold on fold, and leave me blind
To all save visions in the mind.
Then, in the depth of rain-fed streams
I shall slumber, and in dreams
Slide through some long glen that burns
With a crust of blood-red ferns
And brown-withered wings of brake
Like a burning lava-lake;—
So, urged to fearful, faster flow
By the awful gasp, "Hahk! hahk!" of the crow,
Shall pass by many a haunted rood
Of the nutty, odorous wood;
Or, where the hemlocks lean and loom,
Shall fill my heart with bitter gloom;
Till, lured by light, reflected cloud,
I burst aloft my watery shroud,
And upward through the ether sail
Far above the shrill wind's wail;—
But, falling thence, my soul involve
With the dust dead flowers dissolve;
And, gliding out at last to sea,
Lulled to a long tranquillity,
The perfect poise of seasons keep
With the tides that rest at neap.
So must be fulfilled the rite
That giveth me the dead year's might;
And at dawn I shall arise
A spirit, though with human eyes,
A human form and human face;
And where'er I go or stay,
There the summer's perished grace
Shall be with me, night and day.
Scheme | ABCDCDDDXE FFXXGGBBHHIIJJXEXXKKLLMMNNXAOODDPPQRQR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011101 010111001 0011101 1010101 010111 10111 0011101 1111101 101010101 110111 1011101 01111111 1010101 10101101 1110111 01111101 1110111 11110001 10011111 1110001 1111111 1011111 0110111 1010101 11110101 1010111101 111100101 10101001 1101101 11111101 11110101 110111001 01010101 1010111 11011101 10111001 01011111 11011 00111101 1011111 1110101 11010111 0111101 01011101 01010101 0101111 1010101 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,591 |
Words | 298 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 38 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 635 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 147 |
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"Incantation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54193/incantation>.
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