Analysis of Water Lilies
Sara Teasdale 1884 (St. Louis) – 1933 (New York City)
If you have forgotten water lilies floating
On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,
If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance,
Then you can return and not be afraid.
But if you remember, then turn away forever
To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,
There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies,
And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111010101010 1011011000011 111010111010 1110101101 1110101101010 1010010111101 11111111101010 001110111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 405 |
Words | 76 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 8 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 162 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 09, 2023
- 22 sec read
- 392 Views
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"Water Lilies" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34602/water-lilies>.
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