Analysis of Little Words
Dorothy Parker 1893 (Long Branch) – 1967 (New York City)
When you are gone, there is nor bloom nor leaf,
Nor singing sea at night, nor silver birds;
And I can only stare, and shape my grief
In little words.
I cannot conjure loveliness, to drown
The bitter woe that racks my cords apart.
The weary pen that sets my sorrow down
Feeds at my heart.
There is no mercy in the shifting year,
No beauty wraps me tenderly about.
I turn to little words- so you, my dear,
Can spell them out.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Traditional rhyme Quatrain |
Metre | 1111111111 1101111101 0111010111 0101 11010111 0101111101 0101111101 1111 1111000101 1101110001 1111011111 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 420 |
Words | 85 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 109 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 471 Views
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"Little Words" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8180/little-words>.
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