Analysis of The Island: Canto IV.
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
I.
White as a white sail on a dusky sea,
When half the horizon 's clouded and half free,
Fluttering between the dun wave and the sky,
Is Hope's last gleam in Man's extremity.
Her anchor parts; but still her snowy sail
Attracts our eye amidst the rudest gale:
Though every wave she climbs divides us more,
The heart still follows from the loneliest shore.
II.
Not distant from the isle of Toobonai,
A black rock rears its bosom o'er the spray,
The haunt of birds, a desert to mankind,
Where the rough seal reposes from the wind,
And sleeps unwieldy in his cavern dun,
Or gambols with huge frolic in the sun:
There shrilly to the passing oar is heard
The startled echo of the Ocean bird,
Who rears on its bare breast her callow brood,
The feathered fishers of the solitude.
A narrow segment of the yellow sand
On one side forms the outline of a strand;
Here the young turtle, crawling from his shell,
Steals to the deep wherein his parents dwell;
Chipped by the beam, a nursling of the day,
But hatched for ocean by the fostering ray;
The rest was one bleak precipice, as e'er
Gave mariners a shelter and despair;
A spot to make the saved regret the deck
Which late went down, and envy the lost wreck.
Such was the stern asylum Neuha chose
To shield her lover from his following foes;
But all its secret was not told; she knew
In this a treasure hidden from the view.
III.
Ere the canoes divided, near the spot,
The men that manned what held her Torquil's lot,
By her command removed, to strengthen more
The skiff which wafted Christian from the shore.
This he would have opposed; but with a smile
She pointed calmly to the craggy isle,
And bade him 'speed and prosper.' She would take
The rest upon herself for Torquil's sake.
They parted with this added aid; afar,
The Proa darted like a shooting star,
And gained on the pursuers, who now steered
Right on the rock which she and Torquil neared.
They pulled; her arm, though delicate, was free
And firm as ever grappled with the sea,
And yielded scarce to Torquil's manlier strength.
The prow now almost lay within its length
Of the crag's steep inexorable face,
With nought but soundless waters for its base;
Within a hundred boats' length was the foe,
And now what refuge but their frail canoe?
This Torquil asked with half upbraiding eye,
Which said-'Has Neuha brought me here to die?
Is this a place of safety, or a grave,
And yon huge rock the tombstone of the wave?'
IV.
They rested on their paddles, and uprose
Neuha, and pointing to the approaching foes,
Cried, 'Torquil, follow me, and fearless follow!'
Then plunged at once into the Ocean's hollow.
There was no time to pause-the foes were near-
Chains in his eye, and menace in his ear;
With vigour they pulled on, and as they came,
Hailed him to yield, and by his forfeit name.
Headlong he leapt-to him the swimmer's skill
Was native, and now all his hope from ill:
But how, or where? He dived, and rose no more;
The boat's crew looked amazed o'er sea and shore.
There was no landing on that precipice,
Steep, harsh, and slippery as a berg of ice.
They watched awhile to see him float again,
But not a trace rebubbled from the main:
The wave rolled on, no ripple on its face,
Since their first plunge recalled a single trace;
The little whirl which eddied, and slight foam,
That whitened o'er what seemed their latest home,
White as a sepulchre above the pair
Who left no marble (mournful as an heir)
The quiet Proa wavering o'er the tide
Was all that told of Torquil and his bride;
And but for this alone the whole might seem
The vanished phantom of a seaman's dream.
They paused and searched in vain, then pulled away;
Even Superstition now forbade their stay.
Some said he had not plunged into the wave,
But vanished like a corpse-light from a grave;
Others, that something supernatural
Glared in his figure, more than mortal tall;
While all agreed that in his cheek and eye
There was a dead hue of Eternity.
Still as their oars receded from the crag,
Round every weed a moment would they lag,
Expectant of some token of their prey;
But no-he had melted from them like the spray.
V.
And where was he the Pilgrim of the Deep,
Following the Nereid? Had they ceased to weep
For ever? or, received in coral caves,
Wrung life and pity from the softening waves?
Did they with Ocean's hidden sovereigns dwell,
And sound with Mermen the fantastic shell?
Did Neuha with the mermaids comb her hair
Flowing o'er ocean as it streamed in air?
Scheme | ABBABCCDD AEFGGEEHHIIJJKKFFXLMMNNEO APPDDQQRRSSTTBBUUVVWEAAXX OBNWWXXYYZZDDXXEEVV1 1 LL2 2 3 3 FFXXXXABMXFF B4 4 5 5 KKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 110111011 110010110011 10001011001 1111010100 0101110101 01101010101 11001110111 011101011 1 11010111 01111101001 0111010111 10111101 0101001101 111110001 111010111 0101010101 1111110101 010101010 0101010101 111101101 1011010111 1101011101 110101101 11110101001 01111100110 1100010001 0111010101 1111010011 110101011 11010111001 1111011111 0101010101 1 1001010101 011111011 1001011101 0111010101 1111011101 1101010101 0111010111 010101111 1101110101 011010101 0110010111 110111011 1101110011 0111010101 01011111 011110111 101110001 111110111 0101011101 0111011101 1111111 111111111 1101110101 011101101 1 110111001 1010100101 1110101010 11110101010 1111110101 1011010011 111110111 1111011101 11111011 1100111111 1111110111 01110110101 1111011100 11010010111 1101111101 11011101 0111110111 1111010101 010111011 1110111101 11010101 1111010111 01011001001 111111011 0111010111 0101010101 1101011101 1001010111 1111110101 1101011101 101100100 1011011101 1101101101 1101110100 1111010101 11001010111 0101110111 11111011101 1 0111010101 1000111111 1101010101 11010101001 1111010101 011100101 11101101 10101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,337 |
Words | 816 |
Sentences | 33 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 25, 25, 39, 9 |
Lines Amount | 107 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 695 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 163 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 4:09 min read
- 81 Views
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"The Island: Canto IV." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15237/the-island%3A-canto-iv.>.
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