Analysis of A Calendar of Sonnets: February
Helen Hunt Jackson 1830 (Amherst, Massachusetts) – 1885 (San Francisco)
Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;
And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still;
No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,
And willow stems grow daily red and bright.
These are days when ancients held a rite
Of expiation for the old year's ill,
And prayer to purify the new year's will:
Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight,
Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste,
And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed
The ardent summer's joy to have and taste;
Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed,
To recon clear the new life's sterner need;
Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!
Scheme | ABBAABBACDCDDC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101001101 0101010101 1111110101 011110101 111110101 1110111 011100111 1111011101 1101011111 0101110101 0101011101 1111111101 1101011101 1111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 638 |
Words | 116 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 494 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 117 Views
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"A Calendar of Sonnets: February" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17040/a-calendar-of-sonnets%3A-february>.
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