Analysis of Xxviii
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)
My letters ! all dead paper, mute and white !
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
This said,--he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand . . . a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it !--this, . . . the paper's light . . .
Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God's future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine--and so its ink has paled
With Iying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this . . . O Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last !
Scheme | ABBAABBAACDCDC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110101 0111010100 01110011101 0111111111 1111111011 1101110101 1101110101 1111110101 1111101101 1111010111 11111011111 111111111 0111111101 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 644 |
Words | 127 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 470 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 139 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 95 Views
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"Xxviii" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10439/xxviii>.
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