The Sea Spirit
Ah me! I shall not waken soonFrom dreams of such divinity!A spirit singing 'neath the moonTo me.
Wild sea-spray driven of the stormIs not so wildly white as she,Who beckoned with a foam-white armTo me.
With eyes dark green, and golden-greenLong locks that rippled drippingly,Out of the green wave she did leanTo me.
And sang; till Earth and Heaven seemedA far, forgotten memory,And more than Heaven in her who gleamedOn me.
Sleep, sweeter than love's face or home;And death's immutability;And music of the plangent foam,For me!
Sweep over her! with all thy ships,With all thy stormy tides, O sea!--The memory of immortal lipsFor me!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
- immutability n.
- The state or quality of being immutable; immutableness. Heb. [L. immutabilitas: cf. F. immutabilité.]
- plangent a.
- Beating; dashing, as a wave. [L. plangens, -entis, fr. plangere to beat. See Plaint.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sea Spirit is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, The Sea Spirit, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/the-sea-spirit.html, id L10951.
Form and metre
The Sea Spirit is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-AB soonA · divinity · moonA · meB
- 2 -B-B storm · sheB · arm · meB
- 3 C-CB greenC · drippingly · leanC · meB
- 4 D-DE seemedD · memory · gleamedD · meE
- 5 F-FE homeF · immutability · foamF · meE
- 6 GEGE shipsG · seaE · lipsG · meE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ah me! I shall not waken soon | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From dreams of such divinity! | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| A spirit singing 'neath the moon | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To me. | 2 | ·· |
| Wild sea-spray driven of the storm | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is not so wildly white as she, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who beckoned with a foam-white arm | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To me. | 2 | ·· |
| With eyes dark green, and golden-green | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Long locks that rippled drippingly, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Out of the green wave she did lean | 8 | ········ |
| To me. | 2 | ·· |
| And sang; till Earth and Heaven seemed | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A far, forgotten memory, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| And more than Heaven in her who gleamed | 8 | ···/···· |
| On me. | 2 | ·· |
| Sleep, sweeter than love's face or home; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And death's immutability; | 4 | ···· |
| And music of the plangent foam, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For me! | 2 | ·· |
| Sweep over her! with all thy ships, | 8 | ········ |
| With all thy stormy tides, O sea!-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The memory of immortal lips | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| For me! | 2 | ·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.