Analysis of Memory
Walter Savage Landor 1775 (Warwick) – 1864
THE MOTHER of the Muses, we are taught,
Is Memory: she has left me; they remain,
And shake my shoulder, urging me to sing
About the summer days, my loves of old.
Alas! alas! is all I can reply.
Memory has left with me that name alone,
Harmonious name, which other bards may sing,
But her bright image in my darkest hour
Comes back, in vain comes back, call’d or uncall’d.
Forgotten are the names of visitors
Ready to press my hand but yesterday;
Forgotten are the names of earlier friends
Whose genial converse and glad countenance
Are fresh as ever to mine ear and eye;
To these, when I have written and besought
Remembrance of me, the word Dear alone
Hangs on the upper verge, and waits in vain.
A blessing wert thou, O oblivion,
If thy stream carried only weeds away,
But vernal and autumnal flowers alike
It hurries down to wither on the strand.
Scheme | ABCDEFCGAHIJKEAFBLIMN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101010111 11001111101 0111010111 0101011111 0101111101 10011111101 01001110111 10110011010 110111111 0101011100 101111110 01010111001 1101001100 1111011101 111111001 0101101101 1101010101 0101110100 1111010101 11000101001 1101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 845 |
Words | 159 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 21 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 664 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 157 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 159 Views
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"Memory" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38403/memory>.
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