Analysis of Lines On Seeing A Lock Of Milton's Hair

John Keats 1795 (Moorgate) – 1821 (Rome)



Chief of organic Numbers!
Old Scholar of the Spheres!
Thy spirit never slumbers,
But rolls about our ears
For ever and for ever.
O, what a mad endeavour
Worketh he
Who, to thy sacred and ennobled hearse,
Would offer a burnt sacrifice of verse
And Melody!

How heavenward thou soundedst
Live Temple of sweet noise;
And discord unconfoundedst:
Giving delight new joys,
And Pleasure nobler pinions--
O where are thy Dominions!
Lend thine ear
To a young delian oath--aye, by thy soul,
By all that from thy mortal Lips did roll;
And by the Kernel of thine earthly Love,
Beauty, in things on earth and things above,
When every childish fashion
Has vanish'd from my rhyme
Will I grey-gone in passion
Give to an after-time
Hymning and harmony
Of thee, and of thy Words and of thy Life:
But vain is now the bruning and the strife--
Pangs are in vain -- until I grow high-rife
With Old Philosophy
And mad with glimpses at futurity!

For many years my offerings must be hush'd:
When I do speak I'll think upon this hour,
Because I feel my forehead hot and flush'd,
Even at the simplest vassal of thy Power,--
A Lock of thy bright hair!
Sudden it came,
And I was startled when I heard thy name
Coupled so unaware--
Yet, at the moment, temperate was my blood:
Methought I had beheld it from the flood.


Scheme ABABCCDEED FGFGAAXHHIIJKJKDLLLDF FCFCMNNMFF
Poetic Form
Metre 1101010 110101 110101 1101101 1100110 1101010 11 1111000101 110011011 0100 1111 110111 0101 100111 010101 11111 111 101111111 1111110111 0101011101 1001110101 11001010 110111 1111010 111101 10100 1101110111 1111010001 1101011111 110100 0111011 11011100111 11111101110 0111110101 101010101110 011111 1011 0111011111 10101 1101010111 11111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,294
Words 238
Sentences 9
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 10, 21, 10
Lines Amount 41
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 334
Words per stanza (avg) 78
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 10, 2023

1:12 min read
113

John Keats

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. more…

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