Analysis of The Primrose Dance

Arthur Symons 1865 (Milford Haven) – 1945



Skirts like the amber petals of a flower,
A primrose dancing for delight
In some enchantment of a bower
That rose to wizard music in the night;

A rhythmic flower whose petals pirouette
In delicate circles, fain to follow
The vague aerial minuet,
The mazy dancing of the swallow;

A flower's caprice, a bird's command
Of all the airy ways that lie
In light along the wonder-land,
The wonder-haunted loneliness of sky:

So, in the smoke-polluted place,
Where bird or flower might never be,
With glimmering feet, with flower-like face,
She dances at the Tivoli.


Scheme ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010101010 0110101 010101010 1111010001 0101011001 0100101110 0110001 01101010 01010101 11010111 01010101 0101010011 10010101 111101101 1100111011 11010100
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 552
Words 97
Sentences 2
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 111
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
108

Arthur Symons

Arthur William Symons, was a British poet, critic and magazine editor. more…

All Arthur Symons poems | Arthur Symons Books

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