Analysis of A Considerable Speck
Robert Lee Frost 1874 (San Francisco, California) – 1963 ( Boston, Massachusetts)
A speck that would have been beneath my sight
On any but a paper sheet so white
Set off across what I had written there.
And I had idly poised my pen in air
To stop it with a period of ink
When something strange about it made me think,
This was no dust speck by my breathing blown,
But unmistakably a living mite
With inclinations it could call its own.
It paused as with suspicion of my pen,
And then came racing wildly on again
To where my manuscript was not yet dry;
Then paused again and either drank or smelt,
With loathing, for again it turned to fly.
Plainly with an intelligence I dealt.
It seemed too tiny to have room for feet,
Yet must have had a set of them complete
To express how much it didn't want to die.
It ran with terror and with cunning crept.
It faltered: I could see it hesitate;
Then in the middle of the open sheet
Cower down in desperation to accept
Whatever I accorded it of fate.
I have none of the tenderer-than-thou
Collectivistic regimenting love
With which the modern world is being swept.
But this poor microscopic item now!
Since it was nothing I knew evil of
I let it lie there till I hope it slept.
I have a mind myself and recognize
Mind when I meet with it in any guise
No one can know how glad I am to find
On any sheet the least display of mind.
Scheme | AABBCCDADEEFGFGHHFIJHIJKLIKLI MMNN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111110111 1101010111 1101111101 0111011101 1111010011 1101011111 1111111101 101000101 101011111 1111010111 0111010101 111101111 1101010111 1101011111 1011010011 1111011111 1111011101 10111110111 1111001101 110111110 1001010101 1010010101 101010111 11110111 111 1101011101 111010101 1111011101 1111111111 11011010 1111110101 1111111111 1101010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,256 |
Words | 254 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 29, 4 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 505 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 127 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 6 Views
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"A Considerable Speck" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56511/a-considerable-speck>.
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