On The River
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
The sun is low,
The waters flow,
My boat is dancing to and fro.
The eve is still,
Yet from the hill
The killdeer echoes loud and shrill.
The paddles plash,
The wavelets dash,
We see the summer lightning flash;
While now and then,
In marsh and fen
Too muddy for the feet of men,
Where neither bird
Nor beast has stirred,
The spotted bullfrog's croak is heard.
The wind is high,
The grasses sigh,
The sluggish stream goes sobbing by.
And far away
The dying day
Has cast its last effulgent ray;
While on the land
The shadows stand
Proclaiming that the eve's at hand.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 145 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAABBB CCCDDD EEEFFF GGGHHH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 548 |
Words | 108 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
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"On The River" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28821/on-the-river>.
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