Analysis of She Sat Alone Beside Her Hearth
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
SHE sat alone beside her hearth—
For many nights alone;
She slept not on the pleasant couch
Where fragrant herbs were strewn.
At first she bound her raven hair
With feather and with shell;
But then she hoped; at length, like night,
Around her neck it fell.
They saw her wandering mid the woods,
Lone, with rite cheerless dawn,
And then they said, 'Can this be her
We called 'The Startled Fawn?' '
Her heart was in her large sad eyes,
Half sunshine and half shade;
And love, as love first springs to life,
Of every thing afraid.
The red leaf far more heavily
Fell down to autumn earth,
Than her light feet, which seemed to move
To music and to mirth.
With the light feet of early youth,
What hopes and joys depart,
Ah! nothing like the heavy step
Betrays the heavy heart.
It is a usual history
That Indian girl could tell;
Fate sets apart one common doom
For all who love too well.
The proud—the shy—the sensitive,—
Life has not many such;
They dearly buy their happiness,
By feeling it too much.
A stranger to her forest home,
That fair young stranger came;
They raised for him the funeral song—
For him the funeral flame.
Love sprang from pity,—and her arms
Around his arms she threw;
She told her father, 'If he dies,
Your daughter dieth too.'
For her sweet sake they set him free—
He lingered at her side;
And many a native song yet tells
Of that pale stranger's bride.
Two years have passed—how much two years
Have taken in their flight!
They've taken from the lip its smile,
And from the eye its light.
Poor child! she was a child in years—
So timid and so young;
With what a fond and earnest faith
To desperate hope she clung!
His eyes grew cold—his voice grew strange—
They only grew more dear.
She served him meekly, anxiously,
With love—half faith—half fear.
And can a fond and faithful heart
Be worthless in those eyes
For which it beats?—Ah! wo to those
Who such a heart despise.
Poor child! what lonely days she passed,
With nothing to recall
But bitter taunts, and careless words,
And looks more cold than all.
Alas! for love, that sits at home,
Forsaken, and yet fond;
The grief that sits beside the hearth—
Life has no grief beyond.
He left her, but she followed him—
She thought he could not bear,
When she had left her home for him,
To look on her despair.
Adown the strange and mighty stream
She took her lonely way;
The stars at night her pilots were,
As was the sun by day.
Yet mournfully—how mournfully!—
The Indian looked behind,
When the last sound of voice or step
Died on the midnight wind,
Yet still adown the gloomy stream
She plied her weary oar;
Her husband—he had left their home,
And it was home no more.
She found him—but she found in vain—
He spurned her from his side;
He said, her brow was all too dark,
For her to be his bride.
She grasped his hands,—her own were cold,—
And silent turned away,
As she had not a tear to shed,
And not a word to say.
And pale as death she reached her boat,
And guided it along;
With broken voice she strove to raise
A melancholy song.
None watched the lonely Indian girl,—
She passed unmarked of all,
Until they saw her slight canoe
Approach the mighty Fall!
Upright, within that slender boat
They saw the pale girl stand,
Her dark hair streaming far behind—
Upraised her desperate hand.
The air is filled with shriek and shout—
They call, but call in vain;
The boat amid the waters dash'd—
'Twas never seen again!
Scheme | AXXX BCDC XEFE GHXH IJXJ XKLK ICXC XMXM NOPO XQGQ IRXR SDXD STXT XUIU KGXG XVXV NWAW XBXB YZFZ C1 L1 Y2 N2 3 RXR XZXZ 4 PXP XVQV 4 5 1 5 X3 XX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (93%) |
Metre | 11010101 110101 11110101 110101 11110101 110011 11111111 010111 110100101 11111 01111110 110101 01100111 11011 01111111 1100101 01111100 111101 10111111 110011 10111101 110101 11010101 010101 110100100 1100111 11011101 111111 01010100 111101 11011100 110111 01010101 111101 111101001 1101001 11110001 011111 11010111 11011 10111111 110101 010010111 111101 11111111 110011 11010111 010111 11110101 110011 11010101 110111 11111111 110111 11110100 111111 01010101 110011 11111111 110101 11110111 11011 11010101 011111 01111111 010011 01110101 111101 11011101 111111 11110111 111001 1010101 110101 01110100 110111 1111 0100101 10111111 11011 1110101 110101 01011111 011111 11111101 110111 11011111 101111 11110101 010101 11110111 010111 01111101 010101 11011111 01001 110101001 110111 01110101 010101 01011101 110111 01110101 10101 01111101 111101 01010101 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,338 |
Words | 640 |
Sentences | 36 |
Stanzas | 27 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 108 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 97 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 3:12 min read
- 276 Views
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"She Sat Alone Beside Her Hearth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25704/she-sat-alone-beside-her-hearth>.
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