Analysis of A Love Symphony

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy 1844 (London) – 1881 (London)



Along the garden ways just now
I heard the flowers speak;
The white rose told me of your brow,
The red rose of your cheek;
The lily of your bended head,
The bindweed of your hair:
Each looked its loveliest and said
You were more fair.

I went into the wood anon,
And heard the wild birds sing
How sweet you were; they warbled on,
Piped, trilled the self-same thing.
Thrush, blackbird, linnet, without pause,
The burden did repeat,
And still began again because
You were more sweet.

And then I went down to the sea,
And heard it murmuring too,
Part of an ancient mystery,
All made of me and you.
How many a thousand years ago
I loved, and you were sweet--
Longer I could not stay, and so
I fled back to your feet.


Scheme ABABCDCD AEXEFGFG HIHIJGJG
Poetic Form
Metre 01010111 110101 01111111 011111 01011101 01111 111101 1011 1101011 010111 11101101 110111 11010011 010101 01010101 1011 01111101 0111001 11110100 111101 110010101 110101 10111101 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 696
Words 139
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 183
Words per stanza (avg) 46
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

41 sec read
39

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy was a British poet and herpetologist. Of Irish descent, he was born in London. He is most remembered for his Ode, beginning with the words "We are the music makers, / And we are the dreamers of dreams", which has been set to music by several composers including Edward Elgar as (as The Music Makers), Zoltán Kodály, Alfred Reed and, more recently, Aphex Twin. more…

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