Analysis of The Red Sea



Come down and explore the azure realm
     Where blue-cheeked butterfly fish glide in twos—
Where valleys of fire corals abound
     In shimmering, reticulated blues.

Come down and see the meandering
     Moray sleek her length through a jagged reef,
Or catch sight of a stingray's speckled wings—
     Luminous blue spots that defy belief!

Come beneath, see what we saw today:
     Schools of angelfish striped orange and teal,
Turtles swanning up through watery light,
     And this old, Egyptian, chariot wheel ...


Scheme XAXA XBXB XCXC
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 110010101 111101101 1101101001 010011 110100100 011011011 111101101 1001110101 101111101 111011001 101111001 0110101001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 542
Words 98
Sentences 3
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 131
Words per stanza (avg) 30

About this poem

Culminating in an allusion to its parting, The Red Sea is an invitation to a marine world teeming with aquatic life, unspeakable beauty, and history.

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Submitted by Vixility on May 29, 2023

29 sec read
84

John W. May

John W. May has lived in Colorado all his life. He currently works in the field of ophthalmology and loves to mountain bike and read about history. John first became a lover of poetry in 2008 after having read a poem by John Milton. He has been reading and studying the works of various poets since. His favorite poets are Emily Dickinson, Fyodor Tyutchev and W. B. Yeats. more…

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