Analysis of Portrait By A Neighbour
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
Before she has her floor swept
Or her dishes done,
Any day you'll find her
A-sunning in the sun!
It's long after midnight
Her key's in the lock,
And you never see her chimney smoke
Til past ten o'clock!
She digs in her garden
With a shovel and a spoon,
She weeds her lazy lettuce
By the light of the moon,
She walks up the walk
Like a woman in a dream,
She forgets she borrowed butter
Any pays you back in cream!
Her lawn looks like a meadow,
And if she mows the place
She leaves the clover standing
And the Queen Anne's lace!
| Scheme | XABA XCXC ADXD XEBE XFXF |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain |
| Metre | 0111011 10101 101110 010001 11101 01001 011010101 11101 110010 1010001 1101010 101101 11101 1010001 1011110 1011101 011101 011101 1101010 00111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
| Characters | 515 |
| Words | 107 |
| Sentences | 5 |
| Stanzas | 5 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 20 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
| Words per line (avg) | 5 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 81 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 57 Views
4 fans
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Portrait By A Neighbour" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9417/portrait-by-a-neighbour>.
Powered by CITE.ME
Discuss this Edna St. Vincent Millay poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In