The Barren Shore
Coventry Patmore 1823 (Woodford, London) – 1896 (Lymington)
Full many sing to me and thee
Their riches gather'd by the sea;
But I will sing, for I'm footsore,
The burthen of the barren shore.
The hue of love how lively shown
In this sole found cerulean stone
By twenty leagues of ocean roar.
O, burthen of the barren shore!
And these few crystal fragments bright,
As clear as truth, as strong as right,
I found in footing twenty more.
O, burthen of the barren shore!
And how far did I go for this
Small, precious piece of ambergris?
Of weary leagues I went threescore.
O, burthen of the barren shore!
The sand is poor, the sea is rich,
And I, I am I know not which;
And well it were to know no more
The burthen of the barren shore!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 57 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | aabBccbBddbBeebBffbB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 661 |
Words | 134 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 20 |
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"The Barren Shore" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/7383/the-barren-shore>.
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