Analysis of A Bad Beginning
David Herbert Lawrence 1885 (Eastwood, Nottinghamshire) – 1930 (Vence)
The yellow sun steps over the mountain-top
And falters a few short steps across the lake -
Are you awake?
See, glittering on the milk-blue, morning lake
They are laying the golden racing-track of the sun;
The day has begun.
The sun is in my eyes, I must get up.
I want to go, there's a gold road blazes before
My breast - which is so sore.
What? - your throat is bruised, bruised with my kisses?
Ah, but if I am cruel what then are you?
I am bruised right through.
What if I love you! - This misery
Of your dissatisfaction and misprision
Stupefies me.
Ah yes, your open arms! Ah yes, ah yes,
You would take me to your breast! - But no,
You should come to mine,
It were better so.
Here I am - get up and come to me!
Not as a visitor either, nor a sweet
And winsome child of innocence; nor
As an insolent mistress telling my pulse's beat.
Come to me like a woman coming home
To the man who is her husband, all the rest
Subordinate to this, that he and she
Are joined together for ever, as is best.
Behind me on the lake I hear the steamer drumming
From Austria. There lies the world, and here
Am I. Which way are you coming?
Scheme | XAA ABB XCC XDD EBE XFXF EGCG XHEH IXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 01011100101 01001110101 1101 11001011101 1110010101101 01101 0110111111 111110111001 111111 1111111110 11111101111 11111 111111100 1100100010 11 1111011111 111111111 11111 10101 111110111 11010010101 010111001 111001010111 1111010101 10111010101 010111101 11010110111 0111011101010 1100110101 11111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,117 |
Words | 233 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 3 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 06, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 44 Views
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