Analysis of Pictures of Memory
Alice Cary 1820 (Mount Healthy) – 1871
Among the beautiful pictures
That hang on Memory’s wall.
Is one of a dim old forest,
That seemeth best of all:
Not for its gnarled oaks olden.
Dark with the mistletoe;
Not for the violets golden
That sprinkle the vale below.
Not for the milk-white lilies
That lean from the fragrant hedge.
Coquetting all day with the sunbeams,
And stealing their shining edge;
Not for the vines on the upland
Where the bright red berries be.
Nor the pinks, nor the pale, sweet cowslip,
It seemeth the best to me.
I once had a little brother,
With eyes that were dark and deep—
In the lap of that old dim forest
He lieth in peace asleep:
Light as the down of the thistle.
Free as the winds that blow.
We roved there the beautiful summers.
The summers of long ago;
But his feet on the hills grew weary,
And, one of the autumn eves,
I made for my little brother
A bed of the yellow leaves.
Sweetly his pale arms folded
My neck in a meek embrace,
As the light of immortal beauty
Silently covered his face:
And when the arrows of sunset
Lodged in the tree-tops bright,
He fell, in his saint-like beauty,
Asleep by the gates of light.
Therefore, of all the pictures
That hang on Memory's wall,
The one of the old dim forest
Seemeth the best of all.
Scheme | ABCBD EDEXF AFXGXG HICIXE AEGJHJ XKGKXLGLABCB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (28%) |
Metre | 01010010 11111 11101110 11111 1111110 11010 11010010 1100101 1101110 1110101 111101 0101101 11011010 1011101 101101110 110111 11101010 1110101 001111110 110101 11011010 110111 111010010 0101101 111101110 0110101 11111010 0110101 1011110 1100101 101101010 1001011 0101011 100111 11011110 0110111 111010 11111 01101110 10111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,231 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 12 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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"Pictures of Memory" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/53957/pictures-of-memory>.
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