Analysis of Nature And Art. To My Friend Charles Booth Nettleton
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
I.
THE young queen Nature, ever sweet and fair,
Once on a time fell upon evil days.
From hearing oft herself discussed with praise,
There grew within her heart the longing rare
To see herself; and every passing air
The warm desire fanned into lusty blaze.
Full oft she sought this end by devious ways,
But sought in vain, so fell she in despair,
For none within her train nor by her side
Could solve the task or give the envied boon.
So day and night, beneath the sun and moon,
She wandered to and fro unsatisfied,
Till Art came by, a blithe inventive elf,
And made a glass wherein she saw herself.
II.
Enrapt, the queen gazed on her glorious self,
Then trembling with the thrill of sudden thought,
Commanded that the skilful wight be brought
That she might dower him with lands and pelf.
Then out upon the silent sea-lapt shelf
And up the hills and on the downs they sought
Him who so well and wondrously had wrought;
And with much search found and brought home the elf.
But he put by all gifts with sad replies,
And from his lips these words flowed forth like wine:
'O queen, I want no gift but thee,' he said.
She heard and looked on him with love-lit eyes,
Gave him her hand, low murmuring, 'I am thine,'
And at the morrow's dawning they were wed.
Scheme | ABCCBBCCBDEEDFFAFGGFFGGFHIJHIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1 0111010101 1101101101 1101010111 1101010101 11010100101 01010101101 11111111001 1101111001 1101011101 1101110101 1101010101 110101010 1111010101 0101011101 1 1011101001 11001011101 010101111 111111101 1101010111 0101010111 11110111 0111101101 1111111101 0111111111 1111111111 1101111111 11011100111 010110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,232 |
Words | 240 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 30 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 975 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 236 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 42 Views
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"Nature And Art. To My Friend Charles Booth Nettleton" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28804/nature-and-art.--to-my-friend-charles-booth-nettleton>.
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