Shipwreck
It tossed and tossed, --A little brig I knew, --O'ertook by blast,It spun and spun,And groped delirious, for morn.
It slipped and slipped,As one that drunken stepped;Its white foot tripped,Then dropped from sight.
Ah, brig, good-nightTo crew and you;The ocean's heart too smooth, too blue,To break for you.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Shipwreck is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Shipwreck, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/shipwreck.html, id L03650.
Form and metre
Shipwreck is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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.
- 2 A-A- slippedA · stepped · trippedA · sight
- 3 -AAA night · youA · blueA · youA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| It tossed and tossed, -- | 4 | ···· |
| A little brig I knew, -- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| O'ertook by blast, | 4 | ···· |
| It spun and spun, | 4 | ···· |
| And groped delirious, for morn. | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| It slipped and slipped, | 4 | ···· |
| As one that drunken stepped; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Its white foot tripped, | 4 | ···· |
| Then dropped from sight. | 4 | ···· |
| Ah, brig, good-night | 4 | ···· |
| To crew and you; | 4 | ···· |
| The ocean's heart too smooth, too blue, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To break for you. | 4 | ···· |
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.