Analysis of Sudden Light

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)



I have been here before,
             But when or how I cannot tell:
         I know the grass beyond the door,
             The sweet keen smell,
     The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,--
             How long ago I may not know:
         But just when at that swallow's soar
             Your neck turn'd so,
   Some veil did fall,--I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
           And shall not thus time's eddying flight
       Still with our lives our love restore
           In death's despite,
   And day and night yield one delight once more?


Scheme ABABA ACACA ADADA
Poetic Form Tetractys  (33%)
Metre 111101 11111101 11010101 0111 0101010101 111101 11011111 1111111 1111 1111111111 111101 0111111 1110110101 0101 0101110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 612
Words 98
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 126
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

30 sec read
180

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. more…

All Dante Gabriel Rossetti poems | Dante Gabriel Rossetti Books

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