Analysis of A Living Picture
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1826 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) – 1887 (Shortlands, London)
No, I'll not say your name. I have said it now,
As you mine, first in childish treble, then
Up through a score and more familiar years
Till baby-voices mock us. Time may come
When your tall sons look down on our white hair,
Amused to hear us call each other thus,
And question us about the old, old days,
The far-off days, the days when we were young.
How distant do they seem, and yet how near!
Now, as I lie and watch you come and go,
With garden basket in your hand; in gown
Just girdled, and brown curls that girl-like fall,
And straw hat flapping in the April breeze,
I could forget this lapse of years--start up
Laughing--'Come, let's go play!'
Well-a-day, friend,
Our play-days are all done.
Still, let us smile:
For as you flit about your garden here
You look like this spring morning: on your lips
An unseen bird sings snatches of gay tunes,
While, an embodied music, moves your step,
Your free, wild, springy step, like Atala's,
Or Pocahontas, careless child o' the sun--
Those Indian beauties I compare you to--
I, still your praiser,--
Nay, nay, I'll not praise,
Fair seemeth fairest, ignorant 't is fair:
That light incredulous laugh is worth a world!
That laugh, with childish echoes.
So then, fade,
Mere dream. Come, true and sweet reality:
Come, dawn of happy wifehood, motherhood,
Ripening to perfect noon! Come, peaceful round
Of simple joys, fond duties, gladsome cares,
When each full hour drops bliss with liberal hand,
Yet leaves to-morrow richer than to-day.
Will you sit here? the grass is summer-warm.
Look at those children making daisy-chains,
So did we too, do you mind? That eldest lad,
He has your very mouth. Yet, you will have 't
His eyes are like his father's? Perhaps so:
They could not be more dark and deep and kind.
Do you know, this hour I have been fancying you
A poet's dream, and almost sighed to think
There was no poet to praise you--
Why, you're flown
After those mad elves in the flower-beds there,
Ha--ha--you're no dream now.
Well, well--so best!
My eyelids droop content o'er moistened eyes:
I would not have you other than you are.
Scheme | AXBXCXDX XEXXXXFXGXXXXXBGHCDCXXXIXXXXF XXXIEXHXHXCAXXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111111 1111010101 1101010101 1101011111 11111111011 0111111101 0101010111 0111011101 1101110111 1111011101 1101001101 110111111 0111000101 1101111111 101111 1011 1011111 1111 1111011101 1111110111 1011110111 1101010111 1111111 1010101101 11001010111 1111 11111 1110100111 11010011101 1111010 111 11110110 11110110 10010111101 110111011 111101111001 1111010111 1111011101 1111010101 11111111101 11110111111 1111110011 1111110101 11111011111 010101111 11110111 111 10111001011 111111 1111 1111010101 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,088 |
Words | 377 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 29, 15 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 528 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 124 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 85 Views
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"A Living Picture" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7971/a-living-picture>.
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