Analysis of The Palmer
Sir Walter Scott 1771 (College Wynd, Edinburgh) – 1832 (Abbotsford, Roxburghshire)
'O, open the door, some pity to show,
Keen blows the northern wind!
The glen is white with the drifted snow,
And the path is hard to find.
'No outlaw seeks your castle gate,
From chasing the King's deer,
Though even an outlaw's wretched state
Might claim compassion here.
'A weary Palmer, worn and weak,
I wander for my sin;
O, open, for our Lady's sake!
A pilgrim's blessing win!
'I'll give you pardons from the Pope,
And reliques from o'er the sea,-
Or if for these you will not ope,
Yet open for charity.
'The hare is crouching in her form,
The hard beside the hind;
An aged man, amid the storm,
No shelter can I find.
'You hear the Ettrick's sullen roar,
Dark, deep, and strong is he,
And I must ford the Ettrick o'er,
Unless you pity me.
'The iron gate is bolted hard,
At which I knock in vain;
The owner's heart is closer barr'd,
Who hears me thus complain.
'Farewell, farewell! and Mary grant,
When old and frail you be,
You never may the shelter want,
That's now denied to me.'
The Ranger on his couch lay warm,
And heard him plead in vain;
But oft amid December's storm,
He'll hear that voice again:
For lo, when through the vapours dank,
Morn shone on Ettrick fair,
A corpse amid the alders rank,
The Palmer welter'd there.
Scheme | ABAB CXCX XDXD EFEF GBGB XFXF HIHI XFXF GIGX JKJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Etheree (28%) |
Metre | 1100111011 110101 011110101 0011111 1111101 110011 11011101 110101 01010101 110111 110110101 010101 11110101 0111001 11111111 1101100 01110001 010101 1110101 110111 1101101 110111 01110110 011101 01011101 111101 01011101 111101 110101 110111 11010101 110111 01011111 011101 11010101 111101 1111011 11111 0101011 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,204 |
Words | 235 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 102 Views
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"The Palmer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35594/the-palmer>.
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