Analysis of To My Son
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
Those flaxen locks, those eyes of blue
Bright as thy mother's in their hue;
Those rosy lips, whose dimples play
And smile to steal the heart away,
Recall a scene of former joy,
And touch thy fathers heart, my Boy!
And thou canst lisp a father's name--
Ah, William, were thine own the same,
No self‑reproach--but, let me cease--
My care for thee shall purchase peace;
Thy mother's shade shall smile in joy,
And pardon all the past, my Boy!
Her lowly grave the turf has prest,
And thou hast known a stranger's breast;
Derision sneers upon thy birth,
And yields thee scarce a name on earth;
Yet shall not these one hops destroy,--
A Father's heart is throe, my Boy!
Why, let the world unfeeling frown,
Must I fond Nature's claim disown?
Ah, no--though moralists reprove,
I hail thee, dearest child of love,
Fair cherub, pledge of youth and joy
A Father guards thy birth, my Boy!
Oh, 'twill be sweet in thee to trace,
Ere age has wrinkled o'er my face,
Ere half my glass of life is run,
At once a brother and a son;
And all my wane of years employ
In justice done to thee, my Boy!
Although so young thy heedless sire,
Youth will not damp parental fire;
And, wert thou still less dear to me,
While Helen's form revives in thee,
The breast which beat to former joy,
Will ne'er desert its pledge, my Boy!
Scheme | AABBCC DDEECC FFGGCC XXHHCC IIJJCC KKLLCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111 11110011 11011101 01110101 1011101 01110111 01110101 11001101 11011111 11111101 11011101 01010111 01010111 01110101 01010111 01110111 11111101 01011111 11010101 11110101 1111001 11110111 11011101 01011111 11110111 111101011 11111111 11010001 01111101 01011111 1111110 111101010 01111111 11010101 01111101 11101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,291 |
Words | 247 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 165 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 132 Views
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"To My Son" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15287/to-my-son>.
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