Analysis of Matilda Gathering Flowers
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
And earnest to explore within--around--
The divine wood, whose thick green living woof
Tempered the young day to the sight--I wound
Up the green slope, beneath the forest’s roof,
With slow, soft steps leaving the mountain’s steep,
And sought those inmost labyrinths, motion-proof
Against the air, that in that stillness deep
And solemn, struck upon my forehead bare,
The slow, soft stroke of a continuous...
In which the ... leaves tremblingly were
All bent towards that part where earliest
The sacred hill obscures the morning air.
Yet were they not so shaken from the rest,
But that the birds, perched on the utmost spray,
Incessantly renewing their blithe quest,
With perfect joy received the early day,
Singing within the glancing leaves, whose sound
Kept a low burden to their roundelay,
Such as from bough to bough gathers around
The pine forest on bleak Chiassi’s shore,
When Aeolus Sirocco has unbound.
My slow steps had already borne me o’er
Such space within the antique wood, that I
Perceived not where I entered any more,--
When, lo! a stream whose little waves went by,
Bending towards the left through grass that grew
Upon its bank, impeded suddenly
My going on. Water of purest hue
On earth, would appear turbid and impure
Compared with this, whose unconcealing dew,
Dark, dark, yet clear, moved under the obscure
Eternal shades, whose interwoven looms
The rays of moon or sunlight ne’er endure.
I moved not with my feet, but mid the glooms
Pierced with my charmed eye, contemplating
The mighty multitude of fresh May blooms
Which starred that night, when, even as a thing
That suddenly, for blank astonishment,
Charms every sense, and makes all thought take wing,--
A solitary woman! and she went
Singing and gathering flower after flower,
With which her way was painted and besprent.
‘Bright lady, who, if looks had ever power
To bear true witness of the heart within,
Dost bask under the beams of love, come lower
Towards this bank. I prithee let me win
This much of thee, to come, that I may hear
Thy song: like Proserpine, in Enna’s glen,
Thou seemest to my fancy, singing here
And gathering flowers, as that fair maiden when
She lost the Spring, and Ceres her, more dear.
Scheme | ABA BCB CDE FXD GHG HAI AJA DKJ KLI LML MNM EON OXO XFA FPF PQR QRX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101010101 0011111101 1001110111 1011010101 1111100101 01111101 0101101101 0101011101 0111100100 010110 1101111100 0101010101 1011110101 110111011 0100010111 1011010101 1001010111 10110111 1111111001 01101111 111101 1111010111 1101001111 0111110101 1101110111 1001011111 0111010100 1101101101 111011001 0111111 1111110001 010110101 011111101 1111111101 11111100 010101111 1111110101 1100110100 11001011111 010010011 100100101010 110111001 11011111010 1111010101 11100111110 011111111 1111111111 1111011 111110101 010010111101 1101010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,174 |
Words | 379 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 07, 2023
- 1:53 min read
- 152 Views
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"Matilda Gathering Flowers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29162/matilda-gathering-flowers>.
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