Analysis of For an Autograph
James Russell Lowell 1819 (Cambridge) – 1891 (Cambridge)
THOUGH old the thought and oft exprest,
'Tis his at last who says it best,
I'll try my fortune with the rest.
Life is a leaf of paper white
Whereon each one of us may write
His word or two, and then comes night.
'Lo, time and space enough,' we cry,
'To write an epic! ' so we try
Our nibs upon the edge, and die.
Muse not which way the pen to hold,
Luck hates the slow and loves the bold,
Soon come the darkness and the cold.
Greatly begin! though thou have time
But for a line, be that sublime,
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
Ah, with what lofty hope we came!
But we forget it, dream of fame,
And scrawl, as I do here, a name.
Scheme | AAAAAA BBAAAA CCCDDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011 11111111 11110101 11011101 1111111 11110111 11010111 11110111 101010101 11110111 11010101 11010001 10011111 11011101 11011111 11110111 11011111 01111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 640 |
Words | 134 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 156 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 70 Views
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"For an Autograph" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/43042/for-an-autograph>.
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