Analysis of Helen of Tyre
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
What phantom is this that appears
Through the purple mist of the years,
Itself but a mist like these?
A woman of cloud and of fire;
It is she; it is Helen of Tyre,
The town in the midst of the seas.
O Tyre! in thy crowded streets
The phantom appears and retreats,
And the Israelites that sell
Thy lilies and lions of brass,
Look up as they see her pass,
And murmur "Jezebel!"
Then another phantom is seen
At her side, in a gray gabardine,
With beard that floats to his waist;
It is Simon Magus, the Seer;
He speaks, and she pauses to hear
The words he utters in haste.
He says: "From this evil fame,
From this life of sorrow and shame,
I will lift thee and make thee mine;
Thou hast been Queen Candace,
And Helen of Troy, and shalt be
The Intelligence Divine!"
Oh, sweet as the breath of morn,
To the fallen and forlorn
Are whispered words of praise;
For the famished heart believes
The falsehood that tempts and deceives,
And the promise that betrays.
So she follows from land to land
The wizard's beckoning hand,
As a leaf is blown by the gust,
Till she vanishes into night.
O reader, stoop down and write
With thy finger in the dust.
O town in the midst of the seas,
With thy rafts of cedar trees,
Thy merchandise and thy ships,
Thou, too, art become as naught,
A phantom, a shadow, a thought,
A name upon men's lips.
Scheme | AABXXB CCDEED FFGHHG IIJXXJ KKLXAL MMNOON BBPQQP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 10101101 0110111 010110110 111111011 01001101 1101101 01001001 001011 11001011 1111101 0101 10101011 10100110 1111111 1110101 11011011 0111001 1111101 11111001 11110111 111110 01011011 0010001 1110111 1010001 110111 1010101 011101 0010101 11101111 011001 10111101 11100011 1101101 1110001 11001101 1111101 110011 1110111 0100101 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,293 |
Words | 257 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 152 Views
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"Helen of Tyre" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18618/helen-of-tyre>.
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