Analysis of Life And Death
Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)
Life is not sweet. One day it will be sweet
To shut our eyes and die:
Nor feel the wild flowers blow, nor birds dart by
With flitting butterfly,
Nor grass grow long above our heads and feet,
Nor hear the happy lark that soars sky high,
Nor sigh that spring is fleet and summer fleet,
Nor mark the waxing wheat,
Nor know who sits in our accustomed seat.
Life is not good. One day it will be good
To die, then live again;
To sleep meanwhile: so not to feel the wane
Of shrunk leaves dropping in the wood,
Nor hear the foamy lashing of the main,
Nor mark the blackened bean-fields, nor where stood
Rich ranks of golden grain
Only dead refuse stubble clothe the plain:
Asleep from risk, asleep from pain.
Scheme | ABBBABAAA CXDCDCDDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111111 1110101 11011011111 11010 11110110101 1101011111 1111110101 110101 11110100101 1111111111 111101 111111101 11110001 1101010101 1101011111 111101 1010110101 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 692 |
Words | 136 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 274 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 67 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 149 Views
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"Life And Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5849/life-and-death>.
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