Analysis of Beauty
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)
Was never form and never face
So sweet to SEYD as only grace
Which did not slumber like a stone,
But hovered gleaming and was gone.
Beauty chased he everywhere,
In flame, in storm, in clouds of air.
He smote the lake to feed his eye
With the beryl beam of the broken wave;
He flung in pebbles well to hear
The moment's music which they gave.
Oft pealed for him a lofty tone
From nodding pole and belting zone.
He heard a voice none else could hear
From centred and from errant sphere.
The quaking earth did quake in rhyme,
Seas ebbed and flowed in epic chime.
In dens of passion, and pits of woe,
He saw strong Eros struggling through,
To sun the dark and solve the curse,
And beam to the bounds of the universe.
While thus to love he gave his days
In loyal worship, scorning praise,
How spread their lures for him in vain
Thieving Ambition and paltering Gain!
He thought it happier to be dead,
To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
Scheme | AABCDDEFGFBBGHIIJKLLMMNNOO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11111101 11110101 11010011 101110 01010111 11011111 1010110101 11010111 01010111 11110101 11010101 11011111 1101101 01011101 110010101 011100111 111101001 11010101 011011010 11111111 0101011 11111101 10010011 111100111 111101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 917 |
Words | 181 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 26 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 732 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 179 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 190 Views
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"Beauty" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29787/beauty>.
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