Analysis of Outside the House

Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)



Walking yesterday in an outlying neighbourhood,
I went by the house
I used to go to when I was very young.
There Eros with his wonderful power
laid hold of my body.

And yesterday
when I walked down the old road,
shops, pavement, stones,
walls and balconies and windows-
all were suddenly made beautiful by the spell of love:
there was nothing ugly left there.

And as I stood staring at the door,
stood lingering outside the house,
my whole being radiated
the sensual passion stored up inside me.


Scheme ABXXA AAXXXX XBAX
Poetic Form
Metre 101001101 11101 11111111101 1101110010 111110 010 1111011 1101 10100010 10100110010111 11101011 011110101 11001101 1110100 01001011011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 489
Words 91
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 6, 4
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 131
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 31, 2023

27 sec read
132

Constantine P. Cavafy

Constantine P. Cavafy was a Greek poet who lived in Alexandria and worked as a journalist and civil servant. He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. His most important poetry was written after his fortieth birthday. more…

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