Analysis of Hearthside
Dorothy Parker 1893 (Long Branch) – 1967 (New York City)
Half across the world from me
Lie the lands I'll never see-
I, whose longing lives and dies
Where a ship has sailed away;
I, that never close my eyes
But to look upon Cathay.
Things I may not know nor tell
Wait, where older waters swell;
Ways that flowered at Sappho's tread,
Winds that sighed in Homer's strings,
Vibrant with the singing dead,
Golden with the dust of wings.
Under deeper skies than mine,
Quiet valleys dip and shine.
Where their tender grasses heal
Ancient scars of trench and tomb
I shall never walk: nor kneel
Where the bones of poets bloom.
If I seek a lovelier part,
Where I travel goes my heart;
Where I stray my thought must go;
With me wanders my desire.
Best to sit and watch the snow,
Turn the lock, and poke the fire.
Scheme | AABCBC DDEFEF GGHIHI JJKLKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111 1011101 1110101 1011101 1110111 1110101 1111111 1110101 1110111 1110101 1010101 1010111 1010111 1010101 1110101 1011101 1110111 1011101 111011 1110111 1111111 11101010 1110101 10101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 730 |
Words | 143 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 123 Views
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"Hearthside" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8166/hearthside>.
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