Analysis of Chrysalises
Jose Asuncion Silva 1865 (Bogotá) – 1896 (Bogotá)
The little girl, though very ill,
Went out one morning
To wander, with faltering footsteps,
The nearby hill.
She brought back mountain flowers
In which she hid
A chrysalis and, unknowing, set it
Close beside her bed.
A few days later, at the moment
She lay dying,
We all gathered round, our eyes
Red with crying,
And at the instant she departed
The whisper of wings
Was heard, and through the window,
Taking flight, escaping
Into the waiting garden, wafted
A golden butterfly.
Hurriedly, I searched for the insect’s
Now empty prison,
Then turned my gaze to the dead child’s
Pallid brow.
If the winged butterfly, I thought, leaves
Its confining cell
To find light and space and the immensity
Of golden fields,
What shall the newly freed soul find when
It bursts its shell?
Scheme | ABXAXCXX XBXBXXXBCX XXXXXDCXXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011101 11110 11011001 0111 1111010 0111 0100001011 10101 011101010 1110 11101101 1110 010101010 01011 1101010 101010 010101010 01010 10011101 11010 11111011 101 10110111 10101 11101001 1101 110101111 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 756 |
Words | 137 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 204 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 149 Views
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"Chrysalises" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24439/chrysalises>.
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