Analysis of Silently She's Combing
James Joyce 1882 (Rathgar) – 1941 (Zürich)
Silently she's combing,
Combing her long hair
Silently and graciously,
With many a pretty air.
The sun is in the willow leaves
And on the dappled grass,
And still she's combing her long hair
Before the looking-glass.
I pray you, cease to comb out,
Comb out your long hair,
For I have heard of witchery
Under a pretty air,
That makes as one thing to the lover
Staying and going hence,
All fair, with many a pretty air
And many a negligence.
| Scheme | XAXA XBAB XAAA XXAX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain (50%) |
| Metre | 100110 10011 1000100 1100101 0110011 01011 01110011 010101 1111111 11111 111111 100101 111111010 100101 111100101 0100100 |
| Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
| Characters | 447 |
| Words | 84 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 4 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 16 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
| Words per line (avg) | 5 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 86 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 460 Views
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"Silently She's Combing" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20184/silently-she%27s-combing>.
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