Analysis of Answers

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell 1887 (Scarborough) – 1964 (Weedon Lois)



I kept my answers small and kept them near;
Big questions bruised my mind but still I let
Small answers be a bullwark to my fear.

The huge abstractions I kept from the light;
Small things I handled and caressed and loved.
I let the stars assume the whole of night.

But the big answers clamoured to be moved Into my life. Their great audacity
Shouted to be acknowledged and believed.

Even when all small answers build up to
Protection of my spirit, still I hear
Big answers striving for their overthrow.

And all the great conclusions coming near.


Scheme AXA BXB XX XXX A
Poetic Form
Metre 1111010111 1101111111 110101111 0101011101 1111000101 1101010111 1011011110111110100 1011010001 1011110111 0101110111 110101110 0101010101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 542
Words 101
Sentences 8
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 2, 3, 1
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 87
Words per stanza (avg) 20
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

30 sec read
93

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess. She never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful. Sitwell published poetry continuously from 1913, some of it abstract and set to music. With her dramatic style and exotic costumes, she was sometimes labelled a poseur, but her work was praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal. more…

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