Analysis of A Tongue—to tell Him I am true!
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
A Tongue—to tell Him I am true!
Its fee—to be of Gold—
Had Nature—in Her monstrous House
A single Ragged Child—
To earn a Mine—would run
That Interdicted Way,
And tell Him—Charge thee speak it plain—
That so far—Truth is True?
And answer What I do—
Beginning with the Day
That Night—begun—
Nay—Midnight—'twas—
Since Midnight—happened—say—
If once more—Pardon—Boy—
The Magnitude thou may
Enlarge my Message—If too vast
Another Lad—help thee—
Thy Pay—in Diamonds—be—
And His—in solid Gold—
Say Rubies—if He hesitate—
My Message—must be told—
Say—last I said—was This—
That when the Hills—come down—
And hold no higher than the Plain—
My Bond—have just begun—
And when the Heavens—disband—
And Deity conclude—
Then—look for me. Be sure you say—
Least Figure—on the Road—
Scheme | ABXX CDEA ADCXD XDXF FBXB XXEC XXDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111111 111111 11000101 010101 110111 11001 01111111 111111 010111 010101 1101 111 11101 111101 01011 01110111 010111 110101 010101 1101110 110111 111111 110111 01110101 111101 0101001 010001 11111111 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 843 |
Words | 125 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 85 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 101 Views
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"A Tongue—to tell Him I am true!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/11466/a-tongue%E2%80%94to-tell-him-i-am-true%21>.
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