Analysis of Homing Swallows
Claude McKay 1889 (Clarendon Parish) – 1948 (Chicago)
Swift swallows sailing from the Spanish main,
O rain-birds racing merrily away
From hill-tops parched with heat and sultry plain
Of wilting plants and fainting flowers, say--
When at the noon-hour from the chapel school
The children dash and scamper down the dale,
Scornful of teacher's rod and binding rule
Forever broken and without avail,
Do they still stop beneath the giant tree
To gather locusts in their childish greed,
And chuckle when they break the pods to see
The golden powder clustered round the seed?
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Traditional rhyme Quatrain |
Metre | 1101010101 1111010001 1111110101 1101010101 11011010101 0101010101 1011010101 0101000101 1111010101 1101001101 0101110111 0101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 522 |
Words | 88 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 139 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 26 sec read
- 32 Views
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"Homing Swallows" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6862/homing-swallows>.
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