Analysis of To Constantia, Singing
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
I.
Thus to be lost and thus to sink and die,
Perchance were death indeed!—Constantia, turn!
In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie,
Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn
Between thy lips, are laid to sleep;
Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odour, it is yet,
And from thy touch like fire doth leap.
Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet.
Alas, that the torn heart can bleed, but not forget!
II.
A breathless awe, like the swift change
Unseen, but felt in youthful slumbers,
Wild, sweet, but uncommunicably strange,
Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers.
The cope of heaven seems rent and cloven
By the enchantment of thy strain,
And on my shoulders wings are woven,
To follow its sublime career
Beyond the mighty moons that wane
Upon the verge of Nature's utmost sphere,
Till the world’s shadowy walls are past and disappear.
III.
Her voice is hovering o’er my soul—it lingers
O’ershadowing it with soft and lulling wings,
The blood and life within those snowy fingers
Teach witchcraft to the instrumental strings.
My brain is wild, my breath comes quick--
The blood is listening in my frame,
And thronging shadows, fast and thick,
Fall on my overflowing eyes;
My heart is quivering like a flame;
As morning dew, that in the sunbeam dies,
I am dissolved in these consuming ecstasies.
IV.
I have no life, Constantia, now, but thee,
Whilst, like the world-surrounding air, thy song
Flows on, and fills all things with melody.--
Now is thy voice a tempest swift and strong,
On which, like one in trance upborne,
Secure o'er rocks and waves I sweep,
Rejoicing like a cloud of morn.
Now 'tis the breath of summer night,
Which when the starry waters sleep,
Round western isles, with incense-blossoms bright,
Lingering, suspends my soul in its voluptuous flight.
Scheme | AABABCDCDD AEFEFBGXHGHH AFFFFIJIFJFF XKLKLBCXMCMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 1111011101 01010111 01110101111 10101101111 01111111 0111011111111 011111011 10111110111 011011111101 1 01011011 01110101 11111 1110101010 011101101 10010111 011101110 11010101 01010111 010111011 101100111001 1 011100111110 11110101 01010111010 11100101 11111111 011100011 011101 1111001 111100101 110110011 1101010101 1 11111111 1101010111 1101111100 1111010101 1111011 011010111 01010111 11011101 11010101 1101101101 10001110101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,774 |
Words | 318 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 12, 12, 12 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 353 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 79 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 142 Views
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