Analysis of Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids

William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)



Oh fairest of the rural maids!
Thy birth was in the forest shades;
Green boughs, and glimpses of the sky,
Were all that met thy infant eye.

Thy sports, thy wanderings, when a child,
Were ever in the sylvan wild;
And all the beauty of the place
Is in thy heart and on thy face.

The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of thy locks;
Thy step is as the wind, that weaves
Its playful way among the leaves.

Thine eyes are springs, in whose serene
And silent waters heaven is seen;
Their lashes are the herbs that look
On their young figures in the brook.

The forest depths, by foot unpressed,
Are not more sinless than thy breast;
The holy peace, that fills the air
Of those calm solitudes, is there.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH CXII
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010101 11100101 11010101 01111101 111100101 01000101 01010101 10110111 0110101 10011111 11110111 11010101 11110101 010101011 11010111 11110001 0101111 1111111 01011101 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 702
Words 139
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 111
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
73

William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. more…

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