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 Views
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"Substitution" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10387/substitution>.
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