Analysis of My Heart, When First The Black-Bird Sings
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
MY heart, when first the blackbird sings,
My heart drinks in the song:
Cool pleasure fills my bosom through
And spreads each nerve along.
My bosom eddies quietly,
My heart is stirred and cool
As when a wind-moved briar sweeps
A stone into a pool
But unto thee, when thee I meet,
My pulses thicken fast,
As when the maddened lake grows black
And ruffles in the blast.
| Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain |
| Metre | 11110101 111001 11011101 011101 11010100 111101 11011101 010101 11011111 110101 1101111 010001 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 363 |
| Words | 70 |
| Sentences | 3 |
| Stanzas | 3 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 12 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 21 sec read
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