Analysis of Perished
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
I called to the summer sun,
“Come over the hills to-day!
Unlock the rivers, and tell them to run,
And kiss the snow-drifts and melt them away.”
And the sun came over – a tardy lover –
And unlocked the river, and told it to glide,
And kissed the snow-drift till it fainted and died.
I called to the robin, “Come back!
Come up from the south and sing! ”
And robin sailed up on an airy track,
And smoothed down his feathers and oiled his wing.
And the notes came gushing, gurgling, rushing,
In trills and quavers, clear, mellow, and strong,
Till the glad air quivered and rang with song.
I said to the orchard, “Blow! ”
I said to the meadow, “Bloom! ”
And the trees stood white, like brides in a row,
And the breeze was laden with rare perfume.
And over the meadows, in lights and shadows,
The daisies white and violets blue,
And yellow-haired buttercups blossomed and grew.
I called to a hope, that died
With the death of the flowers and grass,
“Come back! For the river is free to glide –
The robin sings, and the daisies bloom.” Alas!
For the hope I cherished too rudely perished
To ever awaken and live again,
Though a hundred summers creep over the plain.
Scheme | ABABXCC DEDEEFF GHGHXII CJCJXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 1100111 0101001111 0101101101 00111001010 00101001111 01011111001 11101011 1110101 0101111101 0111100111 00111010010 0101011001 101110111 1110101 111011 0011111001 0011101101 010010101 010101001 0101101001 1110111 101101001 1110101111 01010010101 10111011010 1100100101 10101011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,196 |
Words | 222 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 221 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 97 Views
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"Perished" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10757/perished>.
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