Analysis of The Choice

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



Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die.
Outstretch’d in the sun’s warmth upon the shore,
Thou say’st: ‘Man’s measured path is all gone o’er:
Up all his years, steeply, with strain and sigh,
Man clomb until he touch’d the truth; and I,
Even I, am he whom it was destined for.’
How should this be? Art thou then so much more
Than they who sow’d, that thou shouldst reap thereby?

Nay, come up hither. From this wave-wash’d mound
Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me;
Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown’d.
Miles and miles distant though the last line be,
And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond,—
Still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea.


Scheme ABBAABBA XCACXC
Poetic Form
Metre 1101110111 100110101 1111011111 1111101101 1101110101 10111111101 1111111111 1111111111 1111011111 1001011111 1111111111 1011010111 0111110101 1101111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 703
Words 127
Sentences 8
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 262
Words per stanza (avg) 62
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
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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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    The long poem “The Waste Land” was written by which poet?
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