Analysis of The Invitation
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
BEST and brightest, come away!
Fairer far than this fair Day,
Which, like thee to those in sorrow,
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow
To the rough Year just awake
In its cradle on the brake.
The brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,
Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn
To hoar February born.
Bending from heaven, in azure mirth,
It kiss'd the forehead of the Earth;
And smiled upon the silent sea;
And bade the frozen streams be free;
And waked to music all their fountains;
And breathed upon the frozen mountains;
And like a prophetess of May
Strew'd flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.
Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs--
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music lest it should not find
An echo in another's mind,
While the touch of Nature's art
Harmonizes heart to heart.
I leave this notice on my door
For each accustom'd visitor:--
'I am gone into the fields
To take what this sweet hour yields.
Reflection, you may come to-morrow;
Sit by the fireside with Sorrow.
You with the unpaid bill, Despair,--
You, tiresome verse-reciter, Care,--
I will pay you in the grave,--
Death will listen to your stave.
Expectation too, be off!
To-day is for itself enough.
Hope, in pity mock not Woe
With smiles, nor follow where I go;
Long having lived on your sweet food,
At length I find one moment's good
After long pain: with all your love,
This you never told me of.'
Radiant Sister of the Day,
Awake! arise! and come away!
To the wild woods and the plains;
And the pools where winter rains
Image all their roof of leaves;
Where the pine its garland weaves
Of sapless green and ivy dun
Round stems that never kiss the sun;
Where the lawns and pastures be,
And the sandhills of the sea;
Where the melting hoar-frost wets
The daisy-star that never sets,
And wind-flowers, and violets
Which yet join not scent to hue,
Crown the pale year weak and new;
When the night is left behind
In the deep east, dun and blind,
And the blue noon is over us,
And the multitudinous
Billows murmur at our feet
Where the earth and ocean meet,
And all things seem only one
In the universal sun.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHAAII JJKXLLMMXXNNBBOOPPXXBBXXQQ AARRSSTTGGGXXUULLKGVVTT |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 1011111 11111010 11101110 1011101 0110101 010101111 1010100 11101001 111001 101100101 11010101 01010101 01010111 011101110 010101010 01010011 110010101 10010101 1111111 01011101 1011001 1010100 1011101 11011111 11000101 1011101 100111 11110111 11010100 1110101 11111101 010111110 11010110 11001101 1100111 1111001 1110111 010111 11110101 1010111 11110111 11011111 11111101 10111111 1110111 10010101 01010101 1011001 0011101 1011111 1011101 1110101 11110101 1010101 001101 1010111 01011101 01100100 1111111 1011101 1011101 0011101 00111101 001 10101101 1010101 0111101 000101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,213 |
Words | 410 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 26, 23 |
Lines Amount | 69 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 571 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 134 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 2:04 min read
- 221 Views
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"The Invitation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29264/the-invitation>.
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