Analysis of Go, Little Book - The Ancient Phrase
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
GO, little book - the ancient phrase
And still the daintiest - go your ways,
My Otto, over sea and land,
Till you shall come to Nelly's hand.
How shall I your Nelly know?
By her blue eyes and her black brow,
By her fierce and slender look,
And by her goodness, little book!
What shall I say when I come there?
You shall speak her soft and fair:
See - you shall say - the love they send
To greet their unforgotten friend!
Giant Adulpho you shall sing
The next, and then the cradled king:
And the four corners of the roof
Then kindly bless; and to your perch aloof,
Where Balzac all in yellow dressed
And the dear Webster of the west
Encircle the prepotent throne
Of Shakespeare and of Calderon,
Shall climb an upstart.
There with these
You shall give ear to breaking seas
And windmills turning in the breeze,
A distant undetermined din
Without; and you shall hear within
The blazing and the bickering logs,
The crowing child, the yawning dogs,
And ever agile, high and low,
Our Nelly going to and fro.
There shall you all silent sit,
Till, when perchance the lamp is lit
And the day's labour done, she takes
Poor Otto down, and, warming for our sakes,
Perchance beholds, alive and near,
Our distant faces reappear.
Scheme | AABB CXDD EEFF GGHHIIXXX JJJKKXXCC LLMMNN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 0101111 1110101 1111111 1111101 10110011 1010101 01010101 11111111 1110101 11110111 11111 101111 0101011 00110101 1101011101 1110101 00110101 010011 1101100 1111 111 11111101 0110001 0100101 01011101 010001001 01010101 01010101 101010101 1111101 11010111 0011111 1110101101 0110101 10101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,186 |
Words | 226 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 9, 9, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 158 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 12, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 90 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Go, Little Book - The Ancient Phrase" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31589/go%2C-little-book---the-ancient-phrase>.
Discuss this Robert Louis Stevenson poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In