Analysis of To A Cloud
William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)
Beautiful cloud! with folds so soft and fair,
Swimming in the pure quiet air!
Thy fleeces bathed in sunlight, while below
Thy shadow o'er the vale moves slow;
Where, midst their labour, pause the reaper train
As cool it comes along the grain.
Beautiful cloud! I would I were with thee
In thy calm way o'er land and sea:
To rest on thy unrolling skirts, and look
On Earth as on an open book;
On streams that tie her realms with silver bands,
And the long ways that seam her lands;
And hear her humming cities, and the sound
Of the great ocean breaking round.
Ay--I would sail upon thy air-borne car
To blooming regions distant far,
To where the sun of Andalusia shines
On his own olive-groves and vines,
Or the soft lights of Italy's bright sky
In smiles upon her ruins lie.
But I would woo the winds to let us rest
O'er Greece long fettered and oppressed,
Whose sons at length have heard the call that comes
From the old battle-fields and tombs,
And risen, and drawn the sword, and on the foe
Have dealt the swift and desperate blow,
And the Othman power is cloven, and the stroke
Has touched its chains, and they are broke.
Ay, we would linger till the sunset there
Should come, to purple all the air,
And thou reflect upon the sacred ground
The ruddy radiance streaming round.
Bright meteor! for the summer noontide made!
Thy peerless beauty yet shall fade.
The sun, that fills with light each glistening fold,
Shall set, and leave thee dark and cold:
The blast shall rend thy skirts, or thou may'st frown
In the dark heaven when storms come down,
And weep in rain, till man's inquiring eye
Miss thee, forever from the sky.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK XXBBLLAAGG MMNNOOJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1001111101 10001101 110101101 11100111 111110101 11110101 1001111011 011110101 11111101 11111101 1111011101 00111101 0101010001 10110101 1111011111 11010101 110110101 11110101 1011110011 01010101 1111011111 101110001 1111110111 10110101 01001010101 11010101 00101011001 11110111 111101011 11110101 0101010101 010100101 1100101011 11010111 01111111001 11011101 01111111111 001101111 01011101001 11010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,594 |
Words | 301 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 22, 10, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 424 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 100 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 58 Views
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"To A Cloud" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40387/to-a-cloud>.
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