Analysis of The Pool

Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall 1883 (Gunnersbury, London) – 1922 (Vancouver)



COME with me, follow me, swift as a moth,
Ere the wood-doves waken.
Lift the long leaves and look down, look down
Where the light is shaken,
Amber and brown,
On the woven ivory roots of the reed,
On a floating flower and a weft of weed
And a feather of froth.

Here in the night all wonders are,
Lapped in the lift of the ripple's swing,–
A silver shell and a shaken star,
And a white moth's wing.
Here the young moon when the mists unclose
Swims like the bud of a golden rose.

I would live like an elf where the wild grapes cling,
I would chase the thrush
From the red rose-berries.
All the day long I would laugh and swing
With the black choke-cherries.

I would shake the bees from the milkweed blooms,
And cool, O cool,
Night after night I would leap in the pool,
And sleep with the fish in the roots of the rush.
Clear, O clear my dreams should be made
Of emerald light and amber shade,
Of silver shallows and golden glooms.
Sweet, O sweet my dreams should be
As the dark, sweet water enfolding me
Safe as a blind shell under the sea.


Scheme ABCBCDDA EFEFGG FHGFG GIIHJJGKKG
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011101 101110 101101111 101110 1001 10101001101 10101000111 001011 10011101 10011011 010100101 00111 10111011 110110101 11111110111 11101 101110 101111101 101110 111011011 0111 1101111001 01101001101 11111111 11010101 11010101 1111111 10111011 110111001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,021
Words 206
Sentences 10
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 6, 5, 10
Lines Amount 29
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 200
Words per stanza (avg) 51
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
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Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall

Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall, was a Canadian writer who was born in England but lived in Canada from the time she was seven. She was once "thought to be the best Canadian poet of her generation." more…

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