Analysis of Stella Maris
Arthur Symons 1865 (Milford Haven) – 1945
Why is it I remember yet
You, of all women one has met
In random wayfare, as one meets
The chance romances of the streets,
The Juliet of a night? I know
Your heart holds many a Romeo.
And I, who call to mind your face
In so serene a pausing-place,
Where the bright pure expanse of sea,
The shadowy shore's austerity,
Seems a reproach to you and me,
I too have sought on many a breast
The ecstasy of love's unrest,
I too have had my dreams, and met
(Ah me!) how many a Juliet.
Why is it, then, that I recall
You, neither first nor last of all?
For, surely as I see tonight
The glancing of the lighthouse light,
Against the sky, across the bay,
As turn by turn it falls my way,
So surely do I see your eyes
Out of the empty night arise,
Child, you arise and smile to me
Out of the night, out of the sea,
The Nereid of a moment there,
And is it seaweed in your hair?
O lost and wrecked, how long ago,
Out of the drownèd past, I know,
You come to call me, come to claim
My share of your delicious shame.
Child, I remember, and can tell,
One night we loved each other well;
And one night's love, at least or most,
Is not so small a thing to boast.
You were adorable, and I
Adored you to infinity,
That nuptial night too briefly borne
To the oblivion of morn.
Oh, no oblivion! for I feel
Your lips deliriously steal
Along my neck and fasten there;
I feel the perfume of your hair,
And your soft breast that heaves and dips,
Desiring my desirous lips,
And that ineffable delight
When souls turn bodies, and unite
In the intolerable, the whole
Rapture of the embodied soul.
That joy was ours, we passed it by;
You have forgotten me, and I
Remember you thus strangely, won
An instant from oblivion.
And I, remembering, would declare
That joy, not shame, is ours to share,
Joy that we had the will and power,
In spite of fate, to snatch one hour,
Out of vague nights, and days at strife,
So infinitely full of life.
And 'tis for this I see you rise,
A wraith, with starlight in your eyes,
Here, where the drowsy-minded mood
Is one with Nature's solitude;
For this, for this, you come to me
Out of the night, out of the sea.
Scheme | aabbccddeeeffaagghhiijjeEkk ccllmmnnoeppqqkkrrhhss oottkkuuvvjjwweE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11110101 11110111 0101111 01010101 01010111 11110010 01111111 01010101 10110111 01001100 10011101 111111001 01001101 11111101 11110010 1111111 11011111 11011101 0101011 01010101 11111111 11011111 11010101 11010111 11011101 0110101 0111011 11011101 11011111 11111111 11110101 11010011 11111101 01111111 11110111 10010001 01110100 11011101 10010011 110100111 1111 01110101 11001111 01111101 010010101 01010001 1111001 000100001 10100101 111101111 11010101 01011101 11010100 010100101 111111011 111101010 011111110 11110111 11000111 01111111 0111011 11010101 1111010 11111111 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,061 |
Words | 418 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 27, 22, 16 |
Lines Amount | 65 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 537 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 138 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 2:06 min read
- 204 Views
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"Stella Maris" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4008/stella-maris>.
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