Analysis of Ulla, Or The Adjuration
Felicia Dorothea Hemans 1793 (Liverpool, Lancashire) – 1835 (Dublin, County Dublin)
'Thou'rt gone!–thou'rt slumb'ring low,
With the sounding seas above thee;
It is but a restless wo,
But a haunting dream to love thee!
Thrice the glad swan has sung,
To greet the spring-time hours,
Since thine oar at parting flung
The white spray up in showers.
There's a shadow of the grave on thy hearth and round thy home;
Come to me from the ocean's dead!–thou'rt surely of them–come!'
'Twas Ulla's voice–alone she stood
In the Iceland summer night,
Far gazing o'er a glassy flood,
From a dark rock's beetling height.
'I know thou hast thy bed
Where the sea-weed's coil hath bound thee;
The storm sweeps o'er thy head,
But the depths are hush'd around thee.
What wind shall point the way
To the chambers where thou'rt lying?
Come to me thence, and say
If thou thought'st on me in dying?
I will not shrink to see thee with a bloodless lip and cheek–
Come to me from the ocean's dead!–thou'rt surely of them–speak!'
She listen'd–'twas the wind's low moan,
'Twas the ripple of the wave,
'Twas the wakening osprey's cry alone,
As it started from its cave.
'I know each fearful spell
Of the ancient Runic lay,
Whose mutter'd words compel
The tempest to obey.
But I adjure not thee
By magic sign or song,
My voice shall stir the sea
By love,–the deep, the strong!
By the might of woman's tears, by the passion of her sighs,
Come to me from the ocean's dead!–by the vows we pledg'd–arise!'
Again she gazed with an eager glance,
Wandering and wildly bright;–
She saw but the sparkling waters dance
To the arrowy northern light.
'By the slow and struggling death
Of hope that loath'd to part,
By the fierce and withering breath
Of despair on youth's high heart;
By the weight of gloom which clings
To the mantle of the night,
By the heavy dawn which brings
Nought lovely to the sight,
By all that from my weary soul thou hast wrung of grief and fear,
Come to me from the ocean's dead–awake, arise, appear!'
Was it her yearning spirit's dream,
Or did a pale form rise,
And o'er the hush'd wave glide and gleam,
With bright, still, mournful eyes?
'Have the depths heard?–they have!
My voice prevails–thou'rt there,
Dim from thy watery grave,
Oh! thou that wert so fair!
Yet take me to thy rest!
There dwells no fear with love;
Let me slumber on thy breast,
While the billow rolls above!
Where the long-lost things lie hid, where the bright ones have their home,
We will sleep among the ocean's dead–stay for me, stay!–I come!'
There was a sullen plunge below,
A flashing on the main,
And the wave shut o'er that wild heart's wo,
Shut,–and grew still again.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EF XGXG HBHBIJIJ KK LMLM NINIBOBO PP QGQG RSRSTGTG UU VPVP XWMWXYXY EF AXAX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (29%) |
Metre | 11111 10101011 1110101 10101111 101111 1101110 1111101 0111010 1011011110111 11110101110111 1110111 0010101 110100101 101111 111111 10111111 0111011 10111011 111101 10101110 111101 111111010 11111111010101 11110101110111 11010111 1010101 1011101 1110111 111101 101011 110101 010101 11111 110111 111101 110101 10111011010101 111101011011101 011111101 1000101 111010101 101101 10101001 111111 10101001 1011111 1011111 1010101 1010111 110101 111111011111101 11110101010101 11010101 110111 010011101 111101 101111 110111 1111001 111111 111111 111111 1110111 1010101 10111111011111 111010101111111 11010101 010101 0011101111 101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,537 |
Words | 477 |
Sentences | 29 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 2, 4, 8, 2, 4, 8, 2, 4, 8, 2, 4, 8, 2, 4 |
Lines Amount | 70 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:31 min read
- 190 Views
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"Ulla, Or The Adjuration" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13656/ulla%2C-or-the-adjuration>.
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