Analysis of A Sleepless Night

Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)



Within the hollow silence of the night
I lay awake and listened. I could hear
Planet with punctual planet chiming clear,
And unto star star cadencing aright.
Nor these alone: cloistered from deafening sight,
All things that are, made music to my ear:
Hushed woods, dumb caves, and many a soundless mere,
With Arctic mains in rigid sleep locked tight.
But ever with this chant from shore and sea,
From singing constellation, humming thought,
And life through time's stops blowing variously,
A melancholy undertone was wrought;
And from its boundless prison-house I caught
The awful wail of lone Eternity.


Scheme ABCAABCADEDEFD
Poetic Form
Metre 0101010101 1101010111 1011001011 0101111 11011011001 1111110111 1111010011 1101010111 1101111101 110010101 01111101000 01001011 0111010111 0101110100
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 598
Words 101
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 486
Words per stanza (avg) 99
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

30 sec read
168

Alfred Austin

Alfred Austin DL was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896 upon the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. more…

All Alfred Austin poems | Alfred Austin Books

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