Analysis of If He were living—dare I ask
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
If He were living—dare I ask—
And how if He be dead—
And so around the Words I went—
Of meeting them—afraid—
I hinted Changes—Lapse of Time—
The Surfaces of Years—
I touched with Caution—lest they crack—
And show me to my fears—
Reverted to adjoining Lives—
Adroitly turning out
Wherever I suspected Graves—
'Twas prudenter—I thought—
And He—I pushed—with sudden force—
In face of the Suspense—
"Was buried"—"Buried"! "He!"
My Life just holds the Trench—
Scheme | XXXX XAXA XXXX XXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (25%) |
Metre | 11010111 011111 01010111 110101 11010111 010011 11110111 011111 01010101 010101 01010101 1111 01111101 011001 110101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 491 |
Words | 79 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 87 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 19 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 24 sec read
- 348 Views
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"If He were living—dare I ask" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/11839/if-he-were-living%E2%80%94dare-i-ask>.
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