Analysis of My Kingdom

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



Down by a shining water well
I found a very little dell,
No higher than my head.
The heather and the gorse about
In summer bloom were coming out,
Some yellow and some red.

I called the little pool a sea;
The little hills were big to me;
For I am very small.
I made a boat, I made a town,
I searched the caverns up and down,
And named them one and all.

And all about was mine, I said,
The little sparrows overhead,
The little minnows too.
This was the world and I was king;
For me the bees came by to sing,
For me the swallows flew.

I played there were no deeper seas,
Nor any wider plains than these,
Nor other kings than me.
At last I heard my mother call
Out from the house at evenfall,
To call me home to tea.

And I must rise and leave my dell,
And leave my dimpled water well,
And leave my heather blooms.
Alas! and as my home I neared,
How very big my nurse appeared.
How great and cool the rooms!


Scheme AABCCB DDEFFE BBGHHG IIDEAD AAJKKJ
Poetic Form Etheree  (27%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11010101 11010101 110111 01000101 01010101 110011 11010101 01010111 111101 11011101 11010101 011101 01011111 01010101 010101 11010111 11011111 110101 11101101 11010111 110111 11111101 110111 111111 01110111 01110101 011101 01011111 11011101 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 910
Words 187
Sentences 13
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 138
Words per stanza (avg) 37
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

56 sec read
187

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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