Analysis of The Lake of Como
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
Again I am beside the lake,
The lonely lake which used to be
The wide world of the beating heart,
When I was, love, with thee.
I see the quiet evening lights
Amid the distant mountains shine;
I hear the music of a lute,
It used to come from thine.
How can another sing the song,
The sweet sad song that was thine own?
It is alike, yet not the same,
It has not caught thy tone.
Ah, never other lip may catch
The sweetness round thine own that clung;
To me there is a tone unheard,
There is a chord unstrung.
Thou loveliest lake, I sought thy shores,
That dreams from other days might cast,
The presence elsewhere sought in vain,
The presence of the past.
I find the folly of the search,
Thou bringest but half the past again;
My pleasure calling faintly back
Too vividly my pain.
Too real the memories that haunt
The purple shadows round thy brink—
I only asked of thee to dream,
I did not ask to think.
False beauty haunting still my heart,
Tho' long since from that heart removed;
These waves but tell me how thou wert
Too well and vainly loved.
Fair lake, it is all vain to seek
The influence of thy lovely shore—
I ask of thee for hope and love—
They come to me no more.
Scheme | ABCB XDXD XEXE XXXA XFGF XXXG XHXH CXXX XIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (78%) |
Metre | 01110101 01011111 01110101 111111 11010101 01010101 11010101 111111 11010101 01111111 11011101 111111 11010111 01011111 11110101 11011 1111111 11110111 0101101 010101 11010101 11110101 11010101 110011 11010011 0101111 11011111 111111 11010111 11111101 11111111 110101 11111111 010011101 11111101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,170 |
Words | 229 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 101 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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"The Lake of Como" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/52658/the-lake-of-como>.
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