Analysis of Sonnet 05: If I Should Learn, In Some Quite Casual Way
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
That you were gone, not to return again—
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—
At noon to-day had happened to be killed,
I should not cry aloud—I could not cry
Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—
I should but watch the station lights rush by
With a more careful interest on my face,
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.
| Scheme | ABACDEDEFGFGHH |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 11110111001 1101110101 1101110101 110100011 110101110 0101110101 01001110111 1111110111 1111011111 0111110101 1111010111 1011010111 1111011101 1111011101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 608 |
| Words | 119 |
| Sentences | 2 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 14 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 447 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 117 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
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"Sonnet 05: If I Should Learn, In Some Quite Casual Way" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9430/sonnet-05%3A-if-i-should-learn%2C-in-some-quite-casual-way>.
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