Analysis of Lines To Fanny
John Keats 1795 (Moorgate) – 1821 (Rome)
What can I do to drive away
Remembrance from my eyes? for they have seen,
Aye, an hour ago, my brilliant Queen!
Touch has a memory. O say, love, say,
What can I do to kill it and be free
In my old liberty?
When every fair one that I saw was fair
Enough to catch me in but half a snare,
Not keep me there:
When, howe'er poor or particolour'd things,
My muse had wings,
And ever ready was to take her course
Whither I bent her force,
Unintellectual, yet divine to me;--
Divine, I say! -- What sea-bird o'er the sea
Is a philosopher the while he goes
Winging along where the great water throes?
How shall I do
To get anew
Those moulted feathers, and so mount once more
Above, above
The reach of fluttering Love,
And make him cower lowly while I soar?
Shall I gulp wine? No, that is vulgarism,
A heresy and schism,
Foisted into the canon law of love;--
No,-- wine is only sweet to happy men;
More dismal cares
Seize on me unawares,--
Where shall I learn to get my peace again?
To banish thoughts of that most hateful land,
Dungeoner of my friends, that wicked strand
Where they were wreck'd and live a wrecked life;
That monstrous region, whose dull rivers pour
Ever from their sordid urns unto the shore,
Unown'd of any weedy-haired gods;
Whose winds, all zephyrless, hold scourging rods,
Iced in the great lakes, to afflict mankind;
Whose rank-grown forests, frosted, black, and blind,
Would fright a Dryad; whose harsh herbag'd meads
Make lean and lank the starv'd ox while he feeds;
There flowers have no scent, birds no sweet song,
And great unerring Nature once seems wrong.
O, for some sunny spell
To dissipate the shadows of this hell!
Say they are gone,-- with the new dawning light
Steps forth my lady bright!
O, let me once more rest
My soul upon that dazzling breast!
Let once again these aching arms be plac'd,
The tender gaolers of thy waist!
And let me feel that warm breath here and there
To spread a rapture in my very hair,--
O, the sweetness of the pain!
Give me those lips again!
Enough! Enough! it is enough for me
To dream of thee!
Scheme | ABBACCDDDEEFFCCGG HHIJJIKKJLMMLNNXIIOOPPQQRR SSTTUUVVDDXLCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111101 0101111111 1110011101 1101001111 1111111011 011100 11001111111 0111101101 1111 1101111 1111 0101011101 101101 110111 01111111001 1001000111 1001101101 1111 1101 111001111 0101 0111001 0111010111 11111111 0100010 1001010111 1111011101 1101 11101 1111111101 1101111101 11111101 110101011 1101011101 10111011001 11101011 11111101 1001110111 1111010101 11011111 1101011111 1101111111 01110111 111101 11001111 1111101101 111101 111111 110111001 1101110111 0101111 0111111101 1101001101 1010101 111101 0101110111 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,051 |
Words | 390 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 17, 26, 14 |
Lines Amount | 57 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 525 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 127 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:59 min read
- 156 Views
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"Lines To Fanny" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23396/lines-to-fanny>.
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