Analysis of Scrub

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



If I grow bitterly,
Like a gnarled and stunted tree,
Bearing harshly of my youth
Puckered fruit that sears the mouth;
If I make of my drawn boughs
An Inshospitable House,
Out of which I nevery pry
Towards the water and the sky,
Under which I stand and hide
And hear the day go by outside;
It is that a wind to strong
Bent my back when I was young,
It is that I fear the rain
Lest it blister me again.


Scheme AABCDEFFGGHIJK
Poetic Form
Metre 111100 1010101 1010111 111101 1111111 111 111111 01010001 1011101 01011111 1110111 1111111 1111101 1110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 395
Words 84
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 311
Words per stanza (avg) 82
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

25 sec read
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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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