Analysis of New And Old

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



I and new love, in all its living bloom,
 Sat vis-à-vis, while tender twilight hours
 Went softly by us, treading as on flowers.
Then suddenly I saw within the room
The old love, long since lying in its tomb.
 It dropped the cerecloth from its fleshless face
 And smiled on me, with a remembered grace
That, like the noontide, lit the gloaming gloom.

Upon its shroud there hung the grave’s green mould,
 About it hung the odour of the dead;
 Yet from its cavernous eyes such light was shed
That all my life seemed gilded, as with gold;
 Unto the trembling new love “Go, ” I said,
“I do not need thee, for I have the old.”


Scheme ABBAACCA DEEDED
Poetic Form
Metre 1011011101 111110110 11011101110 1100110101 0111110011 11011111 0111100101 110110101 0111110111 011101101 11110011111 1111110111 10010011111 1111111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 632
Words 120
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 236
Words per stanza (avg) 59
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
116

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

All Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems | Ella Wheeler Wilcox Books

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