We have 5 pairs of unstressed followed by stressed.Īlso, in lines 2-6, water and clouds are personified. The syllables in bold are the stressed ones. Let's take a look at the first line to confirm the metric: GĪs we can see above, the poem has 14 lines and its rhyme scheme is Shakespearean - AABB CCDD EEFF GG. There would be more than ocean-water broken Gīefore God’s last Put out the light was spoken. Was coming, and not only a night, an age. The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff, D You could not tell, and yet it looked as if D Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes. The clouds were low and hairy in the skies, C Great waves looked over others coming in, AĪnd thought of doing something to the shore B
'Once By The Pacific' has all those characteristics:
Also, they usually maintain a strict metric, commonly iambic pentameter - a five-time repetition of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one in each line. Sonnets have 14 lines and a regular rhyme scheme. We can tell the poem is a sonnet due to the way it is structured. 'Once By The Pacific' is a poem by author Robert Frost.
