Analysis of From Anacreon: 'Twas Now The Hour When Night Had Driven
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
'Twas now the hour when Night had driven
Her car half round yon sable heaven;
Boötes, only, seem'd to roll
His arctic charge around the pole;
While mortals, lost in gentle sleep,
Forgot to smile, or ceased to weep:
At this lone hour the Paphian boy,
Descending from the realms of joy,
Quick to my gate directs his course,
And knocks with all his little force.
My visions fled, alarm'd I rose,--
'What stranger breaks my blest repose?'
'Alas!' replies the wily child,
In faltering accents sweetly mild,
'A hapless infant here I roam,
Far from my dear maternal home.
Oh! shield me from the wintry blast!
The nightly storm is pouring fast.
No prowling robber lingers here.
A wandering baby who can fear?'
I heard his seeming artless tale,
I heard his sighs upon the gale:
My breast was never pity's foe,
But felt for all the baby's woe.
I drew the bar, and by the light
Young Love, the infant, met my sight;
His bow across his shoulders flung,
And thence his fatal quiver hung
(Ah! little did I think the dart
Would rankle soon within my heart).
With care I tend my weary guest,
His little fingers chill my breast;
His glossy curls, his azure wing,
Which droop with nightly showers, I wring;
His shivering limbs the embers warm;
And now reviving from the storm,
Scarce had he felt his wonted glow,
Than swift he seized his slender bow:-
'I fain would know, my gentle host,'
He cried, 'if this its strength has lost;
I fear, relax'd with midnight dews,
The strings their former aid refuse.'
With poison tipt, his arrow flies,
Deep in my tortured heart it lies:
Then loud the joyous urchin laugh'd:-
'My bow can still impel the shaft:
'Tis firmly fix'd, thy sighs reveal it;
Say, courteous host, canst thou not feel it?'
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJKLLMMNNOOPPQQRRSSMTUVWWXXYYZZ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011110 011111010 1110111 11010101 11010101 01111111 11110011 01010111 11110111 01111101 11010111 11011101 01010101 010010101 01010111 11110101 11110101 01011101 11010101 010010111 1111011 11110101 1111011 11110101 11010101 11010111 11011101 01110101 11011101 11010111 11111101 11010111 11011101 111101011 110010101 01010101 1111111 11111101 11111101 11111111 1101111 01110101 11011101 10110111 11010101 11110101 110111011 1100111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,677 |
Words | 321 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 48 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,315 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 310 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 45 Views
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"From Anacreon: 'Twas Now The Hour When Night Had Driven" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15100/from-anacreon%3A-%27twas-now-the-hour-when-night-had-driven>.
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