Analysis of Heredity

Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)



A soldier of the Cromwell stamp,
With sword and psalm-book by his side,
At home alike in church and camp:
Austere he lived, and smileless died.

But she, a creature soft and fine-
From Spain, some say, some say from France;
Within her veins leapt blood like wine-
She led her Roundhead lord a dance!

In Grantham church they lie asleep;
Just where, the verger may not know.
Strange that two hundred years should keep
The old ancestral fires aglow!

In me these two have met again;
To each my nature owes a part:
To one, the cool and reasoning brain;
To one, the quick, unreasoning heart.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 01010101 11011111 11010101 0111011 11010101 11111111 01011111 1101101 01011101 1101111 11110111 010101001 01111101 11110101 110101001 11010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 592
Words 109
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 114
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
58

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich was a poet novelist traveler and editor more…

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