Analysis of I short an Arrow



I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight,
Could not follow it in it's flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak,
I found the arrow, still unbroken;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.


Scheme aAbb aAcc xxdd
Poetic Form Quatrain  (67%)
Metre 111100101 11111111 11101101 11101011 11010101 11111111 11111101 111100111 11100011 110101010 001101011 1101001101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 438
Words 102
Sentences 3
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 106
Words per stanza (avg) 29

About this poem

Love, kindness and sympathy are devine virtues. The person to whom we show them, becomes our friend. In this poem the poet tells us that our love or a kind deed may come back to us in the form of a friend.

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Written on September 18, 2022

Submitted by mdahmadraza0786dbg on September 18, 2022

Modified on April 30, 2023

30 sec read
15

H. W Longfellow

Love, kindness and sympathy are devine virtues. The person to whom we show them, becomes our friend. In this poem the poet tells us that our love or a kind deed may come back to us in the form of a friend. more…

All H. W Longfellow poems | H. W Longfellow Books

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