Analysis of Phases
Wallace Stevens 1879 (Reading) – 1955 (Hartford)
I.
There’s a little square in Paris,
Waiting until we pass.
They sit idly there,
They sip the glass.
There’s a cab-horse at the corner,
There's rain. The season grieves.
It was silver once,
And green with leaves.
There’s a parrot in a window,
Will see us on parade,
Hear the loud drums roll—
And serenade.
II.
This was the salty taste of glory,
That it was not
Like Agamemnon’s story.
Only, an eyeball in the mud,
And Hopkins,
Flat and pale and gory!
III.
But the bugles, in the night,
Were wings that bore
To where our comfort was;
Arabesques of candle beams,
Winding
Through our heavy dreams;
Winds that blew
Where the bending iris grew;
Birds of intermitted bliss,
Singing in the night's abyss;
Vines with yellow fruit,
That fell
Along the walls
That bordered Hell.
IV.
Death's nobility again
Beautified the simplest men.
Fallen Winkle felt the pride
Of Agamemnon
When he died.
What could London’s
Work and waste
Give him—
To that salty, sacrificial taste?
What could London’s
Sorrow bring—
To that short, triumphant sting?
Scheme | abcxc xdxd xexe afxfxxf axxx ghg ii bb xjxj xkklxl Bmxm Bhh |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 10101010 100111 11101 1101 10111010 110101 11101 0111 10100010 111101 10111 001 1 110101110 1111 1110 1011001 010 101010 1 1010001 0111 1110101 11101 10 110101 111 1010101 1111 1000101 11101 11 0101 1101 1 1010001 10101 1010101 101 111 111 101 11 11100101 111 101 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,052 |
Words | 181 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 4, 7, 4, 3, 2, 2, 4, 6, 4, 3 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 17 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 66 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 15 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 145 Views
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"Phases" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37903/phases>.
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