Analysis of Departure
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
It's little I care what path I take,
And where it leads it's little I care;
But out of this house, lest my heart break,
I must go, and off somewhere.
It's little I know what's in my heart,
What's in my mind it's little I know,
But there's that in me must up and start,
And it's little I care where my feet go.
I wish I could walk for a day and a night,
And find me at dawn in a desolate place
With never the rut of a road in sight,
Nor the roof of a house, nor the eyes of a face.
I wish I could walk till my blood should spout,
And drop me, never to stir again,
On a shore that is wide, for the tide is out,
And the weedy rocks are bare to the rain.
But dump or dock, where the path I take
Brings up, it's little enough I care:
And it's little I'd mind the fuss they'll make,
Huddled dead in a ditch somewhere.
'Is something the matter, dear,' she said,
'That you sit at your work so silently?'
'No, mother, no, 'twas a knot in my thread.
There goes the kettle, I'll make the tea.'
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GXGX ABAB HIHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 110111111 011111011 111111111 111011 110111011 101111011 111011101 0110111111 11111101001 01111001001 1100110101 101101101101 1111111111 011101101 10111110111 0010111101 111110111 111100111 0110110111 1010011 110010111 1111111100 1101101011 110101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 968 |
Words | 211 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 120 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 113 Views
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"Departure" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9359/departure>.
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