Analysis of The Story of the Ashes and the Flame
Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869 – 1935
No matter why, nor whence, nor when she came,
There was her place. No matter what men said,
No matter what she was; living or dead,
Faithful or not, he loved her all the same.
The story was as old as human shame,
But ever since that lonely night she fled,
With books to blind him, he had only read
The story of the ashes and the flame.
There she was always coming pretty soon
To fool him back, with penitent scared eyes
That had in them the laughter of the moon
For baffled lovers, and to make him think --
Before she gave him time enough to wink --
Sin's kisses were the keys to Paradise.
Scheme | ABBAABBA CXCDDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111111 1101110111 1101111011 1011110101 0101111101 1101110111 1111111101 0101010001 111110101 1111110011 1101010101 1101001111 0111110111 110001110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 597 |
Words | 119 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 226 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 93 Views
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"The Story of the Ashes and the Flame" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10065/the-story-of-the-ashes-and-the-flame>.
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