Analysis of Forever

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



I HAD not known before
Forever was so long a word.
The slow stroke of the clock of time
I had not heard.
'Tis hard to learn so late;
It seems no sad heart really learns,
But hopes and trusts and doubts and fears,
And bleeds and burns.
The night is not all dark,
Nor is the day all it seems,
But each may bring me this relief —
My dreams and dreams.
I had not known before
That Never was so sad a word,
So wrap me in forgetfulness —
I have not heard.


Scheme AbcbdefeghihAbeb
Poetic Form
Metre 111101 01011101 01110111 1111 111111 11111101 11010101 0101 011111 1101111 11111101 1101 111101 11011101 11101 1111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 448
Words 97
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 341
Words per stanza (avg) 95
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

29 sec read
147

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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