Analysis of The Tower

Harriet Monroe 1860 (Chicago) – 1936 (Arequipa)



He built a tower for all to see,
With sun-washed gardens planted wide.
And there with pomp of pageantry,
With men-at-arms and minstrelsy
And moonbeam ladies fair and free,
He revelled in his pride.
And there, with soft prayers muttered slow,
And wind-blown candles burning low,
And hooded mourners row on row,
In pomp of peace he died.

Now time forgets how many a sun
Above the waste has risen and run
Since all the feasts were over and done;
Yet still from rusty pinnacle,
From cobwebbed pane and broken bell,
A wind-voice murmurs: Here am I—
'Twas good to live and die;
And good to rear these carved stones well
'Twixt laboring earth and dreaming sky.
And now 'tis good to watch and wait
While the slow centuries pass in state,
And make old time my glory tell
To you who wander by.


Scheme ABAAABCCCB DDDXEFFEFGGEF
Poetic Form
Metre 110101111 11110101 01111100 111101 0110101 11011 01111101 01110101 01010111 011111 110111001 010111001 110101001 11110100 1110101 01110111 111101 01111111 110010101 01111101 101100101 01111101 111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 793
Words 146
Sentences 6
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 13
Lines Amount 23
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 307
Words per stanza (avg) 72
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
101

Harriet Monroe

Harriet Monroe was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet and patron of the arts. more…

All Harriet Monroe poems | Harriet Monroe Books

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