Analysis of Improvisations: Light And Snow: 12

Conrad Potter Aiken 1889 (Savannah, Georgia) – 1973 (Savannah, Georgia)



How many times have we been interrupted
Just as I was about to make up a story for you!
One time it was because we suddenly saw a firefly
Lighting his green lantern among the boughs of a fir-tree.
Marvellous! Marvellous! He is making for himself
A little tent of light in the darkness!
And one time it was because we saw a lilac lightning flash
Run wrinkling into the blue top of the mountain, —
We heard boulders of thunder rolling down upon us
And the plat-plat of drops on the window,
And we ran to watch the rain
Charging in wavering clouds across the long grass of the field!
Or at other times it was because we saw a star
Slipping easily out of the sky and falling, far off,
Among pine-dark hills;
Or because we found a crimson eft
Darting in the cold grass!
These things interrupted us and left us wondering;
And the stories, whatever they might have been,
Were never told.
A fairy, binding a daisy down and laughing?
A golden-haired princess caught in a cobweb?
A love-story of long ago?
Some day, just as we are beginning again,
Just as we blow the first sweet note,
Death itself will interrupt us.


Scheme ABCDEFGHFIJKLMNAOPQRPSITUF
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111010 11110111101011 11110111001010 10111001011011 111110101 0101110010 01111011101101 1100010111010 1110110101011 0011111010 0111101 100100101011101 1110111011101 10100110101011 01111 101110101 100011 110101011100 0010101111 0101 010100101010 0101101001 01101101 11111101001 11110111 1011011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,092
Words 209
Sentences 13
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 871
Words per stanza (avg) 207
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
37

Conrad Potter Aiken

Conrad Potter Aiken was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author born in Savannah Georgia whose work includes poetry short stories novels and an autobiography more…

All Conrad Potter Aiken poems | Conrad Potter Aiken Books

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