Analysis of The Lost Mistress
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
All's over, then: does truth sound bitter
As one at first believes?
Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter
About your cottage eaves!
And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,
I noticed that, to-day;
One day more bursts them open fully
---You know the red turns grey.
To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?
May I take your hand in mine?
Mere friends are we,---well, friends the merest
Keep much that I resign:
For each glance of the eye so bright and black,
Though I keep with heart's endeavour,---
Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,
Though it stay in my soul for ever!---
Yet I will but say what mere friends say,
Or only a thought stronger;
I will hold your hand but as long as all may,
Or so very little longer!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GAGA DADA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 110111110 111101 110101110 011101 0011101110 110111 111111010 110111 1101101110 1111101 111111010 111101 1111011101 11111010 11111011 111011110 111111111 1100110 11111111111 11101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 760 |
Words | 145 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 236 Views
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