Analysis of Soldier, Maiden, and Flower
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
"Sweetheart, take this," a soldier said,
"And bid me brave good-by;
It may befall we ne'er shall wed,
But love can never die.
Be steadfast in thy troth to me,
And then, whate'er my lot,
'My soul to God, my heart to thee,'--
Sweetheart, forget me not!"
The maiden took the tiny flower
And nursed it with her tears:
Lo! he who left her in that hour
Came not in after years.
Unto a hero's death he rode
'Mid shower of fire and shot;
But in the maiden's heart abode
The flower, forget-me-not.
And when he came not with the rest
From out the years of blood,
Closely unto her widowed breast
She pressed a faded bud;
Oh, there is love and there is pain,
And there is peace, God wot,--
And these dear three do live again
In sweet forget-me-not.
'T is to an unmarked grave to-day
That I should love to go,--
Whether he wore the blue or gray,
What need that we should know?
"He loved a woman," let us say,
And on that sacred spot,
To woman's love, that lives for aye,
We'll strew forget-me-not.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EXEXFDFD GHGHXAXD IJIJIDBD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 011111 11011111 111101 1101111 011011 11111111 10111 010101010 011101 111100110 110101 10010111 11011001 1001101 0100111 01111101 110111 10100101 110101 11110111 011111 01111101 010111 111101111 111111 10110111 111111 11010111 011101 11011111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 982 |
Words | 198 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 183 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 53 Views
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