Analysis of Armed
Violet Jacob 1863 – 1946
Give me to-night to hide me in the shade,
That neither moon nor star
May see the secret place where I am laid,
Nor watch me from afar.
Let not the dark its prying ghosts employ
To peer on my retreat,
And see the fragments of my broken toy
Lie scattered at my feet.
I fashioned it, that idol of my own,
Of metal strange and bright;
I made my toy a god - I raised a throne
To honour my delight.
This haunted byway of the grove was lit
With lamps my hand had trimmed,
Before the altar in the midst of it
I kept their flame undimmed.
My steps turned ever to the hidden shrine;
Aware or unaware,
My soul dwelt only in that spot divine,
And now a wreck lies there.
Give me to-night to weep - when dawn is spread
Beyond the heavy trees,
And in the east the day is heralded
By cloud-wrought companies,
I shall have gathered up my heart's desire,
Broken, destroyed, adored,
And from its splinters, in a deathless fire,
I shall have forged a sword.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GXGA HIHI XJXJ KLKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1111111001 110111 1101011111 111101 1101110101 111101 0101011101 110111 1101110111 110101 1111011101 11101 110110111 111111 0101000111 11111 1111010101 01101 1111001101 010111 1111111111 010101 0001011100 111100 11110111010 100101 011100110 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,075 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 104 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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"Armed" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54340/armed>.
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