Analysis of The Half-breed Girl
Duncan Campbell Scott 1862 (Ottawa) – 1947
She is free of the trap and the paddle,
The portage and the trail,
But something behind her savage life
Shines like a fragile veil.
Her dreams are undiscovered,
Shadows trouble her breast,
When the time for resting cometh
Then least is she at rest.
Oft in the morns of winter,
When she visits the rabbit snares,
An appearance floats in the crystal air
Beyond the balsam firs.
Oft in the summer mornings
When she strips the nets of fish,
The smell of the dripping net-twine
Gives to her heart a wish.
But she cannot learn the meaning
Of the shadows in her soul,
The lights that break and gather,
The clouds that part and roll,
The reek of rock-built cities,
Where her fathers dwelt of yore,
The gleam of loch and shealing,
The mist on the moor,
Frail traces of kindred kindness,
Of feud by hill and strand,
The heritage of an age-long life
In a legendary land.
She wakes in the stifling wigwam,
Where the air is heavy and wild,
She fears for something or nothing
With the heart of a frightened child.
She sees the stars turn slowly
Past the tangle of the poles,
Through the smoke of the dying embers,
Like the eyes of dead souls.
Her heart is shaken with longing
For the strange, still years,
For what she knows and knows not,
For the wells of ancient tears.
A voice calls from the rapids,
Deep, careless and free,
A voice that is larger than her life
Or than her death shall be.
She covers her face with her blanket,
Her fierce soul hates her breath,
As it cries with a sudden passion
For life or death.
Scheme | XABA XCXC DEXF XGXG HIDI XXHX XJBJ XKHK LMFM HXXE XLBL XNXN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 1111010010 010001 110010101 110101 011010 11001 10111010 111111 1001110 11100101 1010100101 010101 1001010 1110111 01101011 110101 11101010 101001 0111010 011101 0111110 1010111 011101 01101 11011010 111101 010011111 001001 11001010 10111001 11110110 10110101 1101110 1010101 101101010 101111 01110110 10111 1111011 1011101 0111010 11001 011110101 110111 110011010 011101 111101010 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,464 |
Words | 284 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 98 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 107 Views
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"The Half-breed Girl" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8370/the-half-breed-girl>.
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