Analysis of Sonnet IV
Alan Seeger 1888 (New York City) – 1916
Up at his attic sill the South wind came
And days of sun and storm but never peace.
Along the town's tumultuous arteries
He heard the heart-throbs of a sentient frame:
Each night the whistles in the bay, the same
Whirl of incessant wheels and clanging cars:
For smoke that half obscured, the circling stars
Burnt like his youth with but a sickly flame.
Up to his attic came the city cries --
The throes with which her iron sinews heave --
And yet forever behind prison doors
Welled in his heart and trembled in his eyes
The light that hangs on desert hills at eve
And tints the sea on solitary shores. . . .
Scheme | ABCAADDAEFGEFG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111 0111011101 0101100100 110111011 1101000101 1101010101 11110101001 1111110101 1111010101 011101011 0101001101 1011010011 0111110111 010111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 615 |
Words | 115 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 476 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 116 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
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"Sonnet IV" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/328/sonnet-iv>.
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