Analysis of By The Seaside : Twilight
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
The twilight is sad and cloudy,
The wind blows wild and free,
And like the wings of sea-birds
Flash the white caps of the sea.
But in the fisherman's cottage
There shines a ruddier light,
And a little face at the window
Peers out into the night.
Close, close it is pressed to the window,
As if those childish eyes
Were looking into the darkness,
To see some form arise.
And a woman's waving shadow
Is passing to and fro,
Now rising to the ceiling,
Now bowing and bending low.
What tale do the roaring ocean,
And the night-wind, bleak and wild,
As they beat at the crazy casement,
Tell to that little child?
And why do the roaring ocean,
And the night-wind, wild and bleak,
As they beat at the heart of the mother,
Drive the color from her cheek?
Scheme | AAXA XBCB CDXD CCXC EFAF EGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (50%) |
Metre | 0111010 011101 0101111 1011101 10010010 11011 001011010 110101 111111010 111101 01001010 111101 0010101 110101 1101010 1100101 11101010 0011101 11110101 111101 01101010 0011101 1111011010 1010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 735 |
Words | 143 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 100 Views
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"By The Seaside : Twilight" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18537/by-the-seaside-%3A-twilight>.
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