Analysis of Three Faces
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
The sky and sea glared hard and bright and blank:
Down the one steep street, with slow steps firm and free,
A tall girl paced, with eyes too proud to thank
The sky and sea.
One dead flat sapphire, void of wrath or glee,
Through bay on bay shone blind from bank to bank
The weary Mediterranean, drear to see.
More deep, more living, shone her eyes that drank
The breathless light and shed again on me,
Till pale before their splendour waned and shrank
The sky and sea.
Again the same strange might of eyes, that saw
In heaven and earth nought fairer, overcame
My sight with rapture of reiterate awe,
Again the same.
The self-same pulse of wonder shook like flame
The spirit of sense within me: what strange law
Had bid this be, for blessing or for blame?
To what veiled end that fate or chance foresaw
Came forth this second sister face, that came
Absolute, perfect, fair without a flaw,
Again the same?
Out of the dark pure twilight, where the stream
Flows glimmering, streaked by many a birdlike bark
That skims the gloom whence towers and bridges gleam
Out of the dark,
Once more a face no glance might choose but mark
Shone pale and bright, with eyes whose deep slow beam
Made quick the twilight, lifeless else and stark.
The same it seemed, or mystery made it seem,
As those before beholden; but St. Mark
Ruled here the ways that showed it like a dream
Out of the dark.
Scheme | abaB bab abaB cdxD dcd cdcD efeF fef efeF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101110101 10111111101 0111111111 0101 11110011111 1111111111 01000100111 1111010111 0101010111 110111101 0101 0101111111 01001110101 1111010101 0101 0111110111 01011011111 1111110111 111111111 1111010111 100110101 0101 110111101 11001110011 11011100101 1101 1101111111 1101111111 110110101 01111100111 1101010111 1101111101 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,399 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 120 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 103 Views
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"Three Faces" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1435/three-faces>.
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