Analysis of To Vittoria Colonna. (Sonnet V.)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



Lady, how can it chance--yet this we see
In long experience--that will longer last
A living image carved from quarries vast
Than its own maker, who dies presently?
Cause yieldeth to effect if this so be,
And even Nature is by Art at surpassed;
This know I, who to Art have given the past,
But see that Time is breaking faith with me.
Perhaps on both of us long life can I
Either in color or in stone bestow,
By now portraying each in look and mien;
So that a thousand years after we die,
How fair thou wast, and I how full of woe,
And wherefore I so loved thee, may be seen.


Scheme ABBAABBACDECDE
Poetic Form
Metre 1011111111 01010011101 0101011101 1111011100 111011111 01010111101 11111111001 1111110111 0111111111 1001010101 1101010101 1101011011 1111011111 011111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 569
Words 116
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 442
Words per stanza (avg) 114
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
110

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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