Analysis of Old Age. (Sonnet IV.)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
The course of my long life hath reached at last,
In fragile bark o'er a tempestuous sea,
The common harbor, where must rendered be
Account of all the actions of the past.
The impassioned phantasy, that, vague and vast,
Made art an idol and a king to me,
Was an illusion, and but vanity
Were the desires that lured me and harassed.
The dreams of love, that were so sweet of yore,
What are they now, when two deaths may be mine,--
One sure, and one forecasting its alarms?
Painting and sculpture satisfy no more
The soul now turning to the Love Divine,
That oped, to embrace us, on the cross its arms.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDECDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111111 01011001001 0101011101 0111010101 001011101 1111000111 1101001100 00010111001 0111101111 1111111111 110110101 100101011 0111010101 11101110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 594 |
Words | 116 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 464 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 113 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 76 Views
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"Old Age. (Sonnet IV.)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18697/old-age.-%28sonnet-iv.%29>.
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