Analysis of It's Forth Across The Roaring Foam

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



IT'S forth across the roaring foam, and on towards the west,
It's many a lonely league from home, o'er many a mountain crest,
From where the dogs of Scotland call the sheep around the fold,
To where the flags are flying beside the Gates of Gold.

Where all the deep-sea galleons ride that come to bring the corn,
Where falls the fog at eventide and blows the breeze at morn;
It's there that I was sick and sad, alone and poor and cold,
In yon distressful city beside the Gates of Gold.

I slept as one that nothing knows; but far along my way,
Before the morning God rose and planned the coming day;
Afar before me forth he went, as through the sands of old,
And chose the friends to help me beside the Gates of Gold.

I have been near, I have been far, my back's been at the wall,
Yet aye and ever shone the star to guide me through it all:
The love of God, the help of man, they both shall make me bold
Against the gates of darkness as beside the Gates of Gold.


Scheme AABB CCBB DDBB EEBB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010101010101 11001011110100101 11011101010101 1101110010111 110111001111101 110111010111 11111101010101 01110010111 11111101110111 0101011010101 01011111110111 0101111010111 11111111111101 11010101111111 01110111111111 01011101010111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 953
Words 192
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 46
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 185
Words per stanza (avg) 48
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

59 sec read
138

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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