Analysis of Words For Departure
Louise Bogan 1897 (Livermore Falls) – 1970 (New York City)
Nothing was remembered, nothing forgotten.
When we awoke, wagons were passing on the warm summer pavements,
The window-sills were wet from rain in the night,
Birds scattered and settled over chimneypots
As among grotesque trees.
Nothing was accepted, nothing looked beyond.
Slight-voiced bells separated hour from hour,
The afternoon sifted coolness
And people drew together in streets becoming deserted.
There was a moon, and light in a shop-front,
And dusk falling like precipitous water.
Hand clasped hand
Forehead still bowed to forehead--
Nothing was lost, nothing possessed
There was no gift nor denial.
2
I have remembered you.
You were not the town visited once,
Nor the road falling behind running feet.
You were as awkward as flesh
And lighter than frost or ashes.
You were the rind,
And the white-juiced apple,
The song, and the words waiting for music.
3
You have learned the beginning;
Go from mine to the other.
Be together; eat, dance, despair,
Sleep, be threatened, endure.
You will know the way of that.
But at the end, be insolent;
Be absurd--strike the thing short off;
Be mad--only do not let talk
Wear the bloom from silence.
And go away without fire or lantern
Let there be some uncertainty about your departure.
Scheme | XAXAX XBXXCB XXXD EXFX XX XDX EXB XXX CXXF XB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101010010 1101100101011010 01010111001 110010101 101011 10101010101 11110010110 0011010 010101001010010 1101010011 01101010010 111 1011110 10111001 11111010 1 110101 101011001 1011001101 1011011 01011110 1001 001110 0100110110 1 1110010 1111010 10101101 111001 1110111 11011100 10110111 11101111 101110 01010110110 11110100011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,207 |
Words | 208 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 6, 4, 4, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 98 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 49 Views
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"Words For Departure" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26150/words-for-departure>.
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