Analysis of To Edward Williams
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
I.
The serpent is shut out from Paradise.
The wounded deer must seek the herb no more
In which its heart-cure lies:
The widowed dove must cease to haunt a bower
Like that from which its mate with feigned sighs
Fled in the April hour.
I too must seldom seek again
Near happy friends a mitigated pain.
II.
Of hatred I am proud,--with scorn content;
Indifference, that once hurt me, now is grown
Itself indifferent;
But, not to speak of love, pity alone
Can break a spirit already more than bent.
The miserable one
Turns the mind’s poison into food,--
Its medicine is tears,--its evil good.
III.
Therefore, if now I see you seldomer,
Dear friends, dear FRIEND! know that I only fly
Your looks, because they stir
Griefs that should sleep, and hopes that cannot die:
The very comfort that they minister
I scarce can bear, yet I,
So deeply is the arrow gone,
Should quickly perish if it were withdrawn.
IV.
When I return to my cold home, you ask
Why I am not as I have ever been.
YOU spoil me for the task
Of acting a forced part in life's dull scene,--
Of wearing on my brow the idle mask
Of author, great or mean,
In the world's carnival. I sought
Peace thus, and but in you I found it not.
V.
Full half an hour, to-day, I tried my lot
With various flowers, and every one still said,
'She loves me--loves me not.'
And if this meant a vision long since fled--
If it meant fortune, fame, or peace of thought--
If it meant,--but I dread
To speak what you may know too well:
Still there was truth in the sad oracle.
VI.
The crane o'er seas and forests seeks her home;
No bird so wild but has its quiet nest,
When it no more would roam;
The sleepless billows on the ocean’s breast
Break like a bursting heart, and die in foam,
And thus at length find rest:
Doubtless there is a place of peace
Where MY weak heart and all its throbs will cease.
VII.
I asked her, yesterday, if she believed
That I had resolution. One who HAD
Would ne’er have thus relieved
His heart with words,—but what his judgement bade
Would do, and leave the scorner unrelieved.
These verses are too sad
To send to you, but that I know,
Happy yourself, you feel another’s woe.
Scheme | AXBCDCDXX AEFXFEXXX ABADADAGG HIXIJIJKL HLMLMKMXX ANONONOPP HQRQXQRSS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 010111110 0101110111 011111 01011111010 111111111 1001010 11110101 110101001 1 1101111110 01001111111 01010 1111111001 11010010111 010001 10110011 1100111101 1 1111111 1111111101 110111 1111011101 0101011100 111111 11010101 1101011001 1 1101111111 1111111101 111101 1100110111 1101110101 110111 00110011 1101011111 1 11110111111 1100100100111 111111 0111010111 1111011111 111111 11111111 1111001100 1 01101010101 1111111101 111111 0101010101 1101010101 011111 10110111 1111011111 1 110101101 111010111 111101 1111111101 11010101 110111 11111111 10011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,099 |
Words | 414 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 234 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:04 min read
- 96 Views
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"To Edward Williams" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29299/to-edward-williams>.
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