Analysis of O Beauty, Passing Beauty!
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809 – 1892
O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet!
How can thou let me waste my youth in sighs?
I only ask to sit beside thy feet.
Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes.
Might I but kiss thy hand! I dare not fold
My arms about thee--scarcely dare to speak.
And nothing seems to me so wild and bold,
As with one kiss to touch thy blessed cheek.
Methinks if I should kiss thee, no control
Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat
The subtle spirit. Even while I spoke,
The bare word "kiss" hath made my inner soul
To tremble like a lute string, ere the note
Hath melted in the silence that it broke.
| Scheme | ABABCDCDEFGEFG |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1101010101 1111111101 1101110111 1111110111 1111111111 1101110111 0101111101 111111111 111111101 0101011101 0101010111 0111111101 1101011101 1100010111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 594 |
| Words | 118 |
| Sentences | 11 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 14 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 465 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 116 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 04, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 468 Views
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"O Beauty, Passing Beauty!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1052/o-beauty%2C-passing-beauty%21>.
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