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

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

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