Analysis of The Elephant Is Slow to Mate
David Herbert Lawrence 1885 (Eastwood, Nottinghamshire) – 1930 (Vence)
The elephant, the huge old beast,
is slow to mate;
he finds a female, they show no haste
they wait
for the sympathy in their vast shy hearts
slowly, slowly to rouse
as they loiter along the river-beds
and drink and browse
and dash in panic through the brake
of forest with the herd,
and sleep in massive silence, and wake
together, without a word.
So slowly the great hot elephant hearts
grow full of desire,
and the great beasts mate in secret at last,
hiding their fire.
Oldest they are and the wisest of beasts
so they know at last
how to wait for the loneliest of feasts
for the full repast.
They do not snatch, they do not tear;
their massive blood
moves as the moon-tides, near, more near
till they touch in flood.
Scheme | ABXB CXXX DEDE CFGF HGHA XIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 01000111 1111 11011111 11 1010001111 101011 1110010101 0101 01010101 110101 010101001 0100101 1100111001 111010 0011101011 10110 1011001011 11111 11110111 1011 11111111 1101 11011111 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 705 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 126 Views
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