Analysis of Substitution

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)



WHEN some beloved voice that was to you
Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
And silence, against which you dare not cry,
Aches round you like a strong disease and new--
What hope ? what help ? what music will undo
That silence to your sense ? Not friendship's sigh,
Not reason's subtle count; not melody
Of viols, nor of pipes that Faunus blew;
Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales
Whose hearts leap upward through the cypress-trees
To the clear moon; nor yet the spheric laws
Self-chanted, nor the angels' sweet ' All hails,'
Met in the smile of God: nay, none of these.
Speak THOU, availing Christ !--and fill this pause.


Scheme ABCAACBADDDDDD
Poetic Form
Metre 110111111 110101100 0100111111 1111010101 1111110101 110111111 111011100 11111111 11110111 1111010101 101111011 1101010111 1001111111 11110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 629
Words 113
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 490
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

33 sec read
104

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. more…

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