Analysis of Atavism
Elinor Morton Wylie 1885 (Somerville, New Jersey) – 1928 (New York City, New York)
I was always afraid of Somes's Pond:
Not the little pond, by which the willow stands,
Where laughing boys catch alewives in their hands
In brown, bright shallows; but the one beyond.
There, where the frost makes all the birches burn
Yellow as cow-lilies, and the pale sky shines
Like a polished shell between black spruce and pines,
Some strange thing tracks us, turning where we turn.
You'll say I dreamed it, being the true daughter
Of those who in old times endured this dread.
Look! Where the lily-stems are showing red
A silent paddle moves below the water,
A sliding shape has stirred them like a breath;
Tall plumes surmount a painted mask of death.
Scheme | ABBACDDC EFFEGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101111 1010111011 110111011 011110101 110111011 10111000111 10101011101 1111110111 11111100110 1110110111 1101011101 01010101010 0101111101 1101010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 663 |
Words | 118 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 260 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 142 Views
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"Atavism" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10141/atavism>.
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