Analysis of The Piper

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



AGAIN I hear you piping, for I know the tune so well, -
You rouse the heart to wander and be free,
Tho' where you learned your music, not the God of song can tell,
For you pipe the open highway and the sea.
O piper, lightly footing, lightly piping on your way,
Tho' your music thrills and pierces far and near,
I tell you you had better pipe to someone else to-day,
For you cannot pipe my fancy from my dear.

You sound the note of travel through the hamlet and the town;
You would lure the holy angels from on high;
And not a man can hear you, but he throws the hammer down
And is off to see the countries ere he die.
But now no more I wander, now unchanging here I stay;
By my love, you find me safely sitting here:
And pipe you ne'er so sweetly, till you pipe the hills away,
You can never pipe my fancy from my dear.


Scheme ABABCDCD EFEFCXCD
Poetic Form
Metre 01111101110111 1101110011 11111101011111 1110101001 11010101010111 1110101101 1111110111111 11101110111 11011101010001 11101010111 01011111110101 01111010111 11111101010111 11111110101 01111101110101 11101110111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 812
Words 169
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 39
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 313
Words per stanza (avg) 84
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 05, 2023

51 sec read
146

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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