Analysis of On A Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken

George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)



Ill-fated Heart! And can it be,
That thou should'st thus be rent in vain?
Have years of care for thine and thee
Alike been all employ'd in vain?

Yet precious seems each shatter'd part
And every fragment dearer grown
Since he who wears thee feels thou art
A fitter emblem of his own.

March 16, 1812


Scheme ABAB CDCD X
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111 111111101 11111101 01110101 11011101 010010101 11111111 01010111 1
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 297
Words 58
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 1
Lines Amount 9
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 77
Words per stanza (avg) 19
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

18 sec read
119

George Gordon Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer and politician who became a revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence, and is considered one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement. He is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular. He travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in the cities of Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa. During his stay in Italy he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died of disease leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted after the First and Second Siege of Missolonghi. His only legitimate child, Ada Lovelace, is regarded as a foundational figure in the field of computer programming based on her notes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. Byron's illegitimate children include Allegra Byron, who died in childhood, and possibly Elizabeth Medora Leigh.  more…

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