Analysis of The Solitary
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
I.
Dar’st thou amid the varied multitude
To live alone, an isolated thing?
To see the busy beings round thee spring,
And care for none; in thy calm solitude,
A flower that scarce breathes in the desert rude
To Zephyr’s passing wing?
II.
Not the swart Pariah in some Indian grove,
Lone, lean, and hunted by his brother’s hate,
Hath drunk so deep the cup of bitter fate
As that poor wretch who cannot, cannot love:
He bears a load which nothing can remove,
A killing, withering weight.
III.
He smiles--'tis sorrow's deadliest mockery;
He speaks--the cold words flow not from his soul;
He acts like others, drains the genial bowl,--
Yet, yet he longs--although he fears--to die;
He pants to reach what yet he seems to fly,
Dull life's extremest goal.
Scheme | ABCCBBC AXDDXXD AXEEAAE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 110101010 110111001 1101010111 011101110 01011100101 110101 1 101010011001 1101011101 1111011101 1111110101 1101110101 0101001 1 1111100100 1101111111 1111010101 111111111 1111111111 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 743 |
Words | 135 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 191 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 27, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 247 Views
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