Analysis of Not To Be
Augusta Davies Webster 1837 (Poole, Dorset) – 1894
THE rose said 'Let but this long rain be past,
And I shall feel my sweetness in the sun
And pour its fullness into life at last.'
But when the rain was done,
But when dawn sparkled through unclouded air,
She was not there.
The lark said 'Let but winter be away,
And blossoms come, and light, and I will soar,
And lose the earth, and be the voice of day.'
But when the snows were o'er,
But when spring broke in blueness overhead,
The lark was dead.
And myriad roses made the garden glow,
And skylarks carolled all the summer long—
What lack of birds to sing and flowers to blow?
Yet, ah, lost scent, lost song!
Poor empty rose, poor lark that never trilled!
Dead unfulfilled!
Scheme | ABABCC DXDXEE FGFGAX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111111 0111110001 0111001111 110111 11110111 1111 0111110101 0101010111 0101010111 1101010 1111010101 0111 01001010101 01110101 11111101011 111111 1101111101 101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 667 |
Words | 132 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 173 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 42 Views
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"Not To Be" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4099/not-to-be>.
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