Analysis of To the Muse
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
Resign the rhapsody, the dream,
To men of larger reach;
Be ours the quest of a plain theme,
The piety of speech.
As monkish scribes from morning break
Toiled till the close of light,
Nor thought a day too long to make
One line or letter bright:
We also with an ardent mind,
Time, wealth, and fame forgot,
Our glory in our patience find
And skim, and skim the pot:
Till last, when round the house we hear
The evensong of birds,
One corner of blue heaven appear
In our clear well of words.
Leave, leave it then, muse of my heart!
Sans finish and sans frame,
Leave unadorned by needless art
The picture as it came.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG HIHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 01010001 111101 110011011 010011 1111101 110111 11011111 111101 11011101 110101 1010010101 010101 11110111 0111 110111001 0101111 11111111 110011 1011101 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 604 |
Words | 119 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 63 Views
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"To the Muse" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31741/to-the-muse>.
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