Analysis of Lines for a Grave-Stone

Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)



Man alive, that mournst thy lot,
Desiring what thou hast not got,
Money, beauty, love, what not;

Deeming it blesseder to be
A rotted man, than live to see
So rude a sky as covers thee;

Deeming thyself of all unblest
And wretched souls the wretchedest,
Longing to die and be at rest;

Know: that however grim the fate
Which sent thee forth to meditate
Upon my enviable state,

Here lieth one who would resign
Gladly his lot, to shoulder thine.
Give me thy coat; get into mine.


Scheme AAA BBB AAX CCC DDD
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1011111 010011111 1010111 11111 01011111 11011101 11111 010101 10110111 1110101 1111110 01110001 1111101 10111101 11111011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 467
Words 90
Sentences 3
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 74
Words per stanza (avg) 18
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 10, 2023

27 sec read
419

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism more…

All Edna St. Vincent Millay poems | Edna St. Vincent Millay Books

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