How Tuneful Is The Voice Of Sea

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev 1803 ( Ovstug near Bryansk, Oryol Governorate) – 1873 (Saint Petersburg)



How tuneful is the voice of sea,
What true accord in ocean's murmur,
And in the reed's light, rhythmic tremour
What tender musicality!

In nature all is harmony,
A consonance fore'er agreed on,
And 'tis alone our phantom freedom
That is disturbingly off-key.

Whence comes this breach? How to explain
Why with the sea its song sonorous
The soul declines to sing in chorus?
Why does the thinking reed complain?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

22 sec read
124

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBA AXXA CDDC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 404
Words 72
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (Russian: Фёдор Иванович Тютчев, Pre-Reform orthography: Ѳедоръ Ивановичъ Тютчевъ) was a Russian poet and diplomat.  more…

All Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev poems | Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev Books

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