Analysis of Exaggeration
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)
WE overstate the ills of life, and take
Imagination (given us to bring down
The choirs of singing angels overshone
By God's clear glory) down our earth to rake
The dismal snows instead, flake following flake,
To cover all the corn; we walk upon
The shadow of hills across a level thrown,
And pant like climbers: near the alder brake
We sigh so loud, the nightingale within
Refuses to sing loud, as else she would.
O brothers, let us leave the shame and sin
Of taking vainly, in a plaintive mood,
The holy name of GRIEF !--holy herein
That by the grief of ONE came all our good.
Scheme | ABBAACDAEFEGEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110011101 0010101111 01110101 11110110111 01010111001 1101011101 0111010101 0111010101 1111010001 0101111111 1101110101 1101000101 0101111001 11011111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 572 |
Words | 110 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 451 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 108 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 30, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 104 Views
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"Exaggeration" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10226/exaggeration>.
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