Analysis of To A Lady Playing The Harp
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
Thy tones are silver melted into sound,
And as I dream
I see no walls around,
But seem to hear
A gondolier
Sing sweetly down some slow Venetian stream.
Italian skies--that I have never seen--
I see above.
(Ah, play again, my queen;
Thy fingers white
Fly swift and light
And weave for me the golden mesh of love.)
Oh, thou dusk sorceress of the dusky eyes
And soft dark hair,
'T is thou that mak'st my skies
So swift to change
To far and strange:
But far and strange, thou still dost make them fair.
Now thou dost sing, and I am lost in thee
As one who drowns
In floods of melody.
Still in thy art
Give me this part,
Till perfect love, the love of loving crowns.
Scheme | ABAXXB CDCEED FGFHHG IJIKKJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010011 0111 111101 1111 001 1101110101 0101111101 1101 110111 1101 1101 0111010111 11111011 0111 11111111 1111 1101 1101111111 1111011101 1111 011100 1011 1111 1011011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 646 |
Words | 133 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 127 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 56 Views
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"To A Lady Playing The Harp" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28974/to-a-lady-playing-the-harp>.
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