Analysis of From the Antique

Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)



It's a weary life, it is, she said:
Doubly blank in a woman's lot:
I wish and I wish I were a man:
Or, better then any being, were not:

Were nothing at all in all the world,
Not a body and not a soul:
Not so much as a grain of dust
Or a drop of water from pole to pole.

Still the world would wag on the same,
Still the seasons go and come:
Blossoms bloom as in days of old,
Cherries ripen and wild bees hum.

None would miss me in all the world,
How much less would care or weep:
I should be nothing, while all the rest
Would wake and weary and fall asleep.


Scheme XAXA BCXC XDXD BEXE
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 101011111 10100101 110111001 1101101001 010110101 10100101 11110111 1011101111 10111101 1010101 10110111 10100111 11110101 1111111 111101101 110100101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 561
Words 121
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 104
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

36 sec read
116

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote various romantic, devotional, and children's poems. "Goblin Market" and "Remember" remain famous. She wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in the UK: "In the Bleak Midwinter", later set by Gustav Holst and by Harold Darke, and "Love Came Down at Christmas", set by Harold Darke and by other composers. more…

All Christina Georgina Rossetti poems | Christina Georgina Rossetti Books

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