Analysis of Warning to Children
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
Children, if you dare to think
Of the greatness, rareness, muchness
Fewness of this precious only
Endless world in which you say
You live, you think of things like this:
Blocks of slate enclosing dappled
Red and green, enclosing tawny
Yellow nets, enclosing white
And black acres of dominoes,
Where a neat brown paper parcel
Tempts you to untie the string.
In the parcel a small island,
On the island a large tree,
On the tree a husky fruit.
Strip the husk and pare the rind off:
In the kernel you will see
Blocks of slate enclosed by dappled
Red and green, enclosed by tawny
Yellow nets, enclosed by white
And black acres of dominoes,
Where the same brown paper parcel -
Children, leave the string alone!
For who dares undo the parcel
Finds himself at once inside it,
On the island, in the fruit,
Blocks of slate about his head,
Finds himself enclosed by dappled
Green and red, enclosed by yellow
Tawny nets, enclosed by black
And white acres of dominoes,
With the same brown paper parcel
Still untied upon his knee.
And, if he then should dare to think
Of the fewness, muchness, rareness,
Greatness of this endless only
Precious world in which he says
he lives - he then unties the string.
Scheme | abcbbdcdBefdcdgbdcdBeheddddijbecabcbf |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011111 1010101 1111010 1010111 11111111 1110101 10101010 1010101 0110110 10111010 1110101 00100110 1010011 1010101 10101011 0010111 1110111 10101110 1010111 0110110 10111010 1010101 11101010 10111011 1010001 1110111 1010111 10101110 1010111 0110110 10111010 1010111 01111111 101110 10111010 1010111 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,163 |
Words | 217 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 37 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 944 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 215 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 305 Views
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