Analysis of An Apple Gathering

Christina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)



I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree
    And wore them all that evening in my hair:
Then in due season when I went to see
        I found no apples there.

With dangling basket all along the grass
    As I had come I went the selfsame track:
My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass
        So empty-handed back.

Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,
    Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer;
Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,
        Their mother's home was near.

Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,
    A stronger hand than hers helped it along;
A voice talked with her through the shadows cool
        More sweet to me than song.

Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth
    Than apples with their green leaves piled above?
I counted rosiest apples on the earth
        Of far less worth than love.

So once it was with me you stooped to talk
    Laughing and listening in this very lane:
To think that by this way we used to walk
        We shall not walk again!

I let me neighbours pass me, ones and twos
    And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,
And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews
        Fell fast I loitered still.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG HIHI JXJX KLKL
Poetic Form Quatrain  (86%)
Metre 1111011101 0111110011 1011011111 111101 11001010101 111111011 111111111 110101 100010010101 1111011101 111101011 110111 1101110101 0101101101 011101011 111111 1101011111 1101111101 110110101 111111 1111111111 10010001101 1111111111 111101 111111101 0101010111 010111101 11111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,165
Words 208
Sentences 8
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 125
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted by naama on July 15, 2020

Modified on May 01, 2023

1:02 min read
46

Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English poet who wrote various romantic, devotional, and children's poems. more…

All Christina Rossetti poems | Christina Rossetti Books

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