Analysis of Apology

Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)



Be not angry with me that I bear
   Your colours everywhere,
   All through each crowded street,
   And meet
   The wonder-light in every eye,
   As I go by.

Each plodding wayfarer looks up to gaze,
   Blinded by rainbow haze,
   The stuff of happiness,
   No less,
   Which wraps me in its glad-hued folds
   Of peacock golds.

Before my feet the dusty, rough-paved way
   Flushes beneath its gray.
   My steps fall ringed with light,
   So bright,
   It seems a myriad suns are strown
   About the town.

Around me is the sound of steepled bells,
   And rich perfumed smells
   Hang like a wind-forgotten cloud,
   And shroud
   Me from close contact with the world.
   I dwell impearled.

You blazon me with jewelled insignia.
   A flaming nebula
   Rims in my life. And yet
   You set
   The word upon me, unconfessed
   To go unguessed.


Scheme AABBCC DDXXEE FFGGHH IIJJXB HXKKBB
Poetic Form Tetractys  (37%)
Etheree  (27%)
Metre 111011111 1110 111101 01 010101001 1111 11011111 10111 011100 11 11101111 111 0111010111 100111 111111 11 110100111 0101 011101111 01011 11010101 01 1111101 111 111110100 010100 101101 11 010111 111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 846
Words 139
Sentences 10
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 120
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

41 sec read
141

Amy Lowell

Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. more…

All Amy Lowell poems | Amy Lowell Books

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