Analysis of The Amulet

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)



Your picture smiles as first it smiled,
The ring you gave is still the same,
Your letter tells, O changing child,
No tidings since it came.

Give me an amulet
That keeps intelligence with you,
Red when you love, and rosier red,
And when you love not, pale and blue.

Alas, that neither bonds nor vows
Can certify possession;
Torments me still the fear that love
Died in its last expression.


Scheme ABAB XCXC XDXD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11011111 01111101 11011101 110111 111100 11010011 111101001 01111101 01110111 110010 1110111 1011010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 385
Words 73
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 102
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

21 sec read
365

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. more…

All Ralph Waldo Emerson poems | Ralph Waldo Emerson Books

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