Analysis of This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
I mention it to you,
When Sunrise through a fissure drop
The Day must follow too.
If we demur, its gaping sides
Disclose as 'twere a Tomb
Ourself am lying straight wherein
The Favorite of Doom.
When it has just contained a Life
Then, Darling, it will close
And yet so bolder every Day
So turbulent it grows
I'm tempted half to stitch it up
With a remaining Breath
I should not miss in yielding, though
To Him, it would be Death—
And so I bear it big about
My Burial—before
A Life quite ready to depart
Can harass me no more—
| Scheme | ABXB XCXC AXXX XDXD XEXE |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Etheree (25%) Tetractys (20%) |
| Metre | 11010111 110111 1110101 011101 11011101 011101 001110101 010011 11110101 110111 011101001 110011 11011111 100101 11110101 111111 01111101 110001 01110101 101111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 551 |
| Words | 110 |
| Sentences | 3 |
| Stanzas | 5 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 20 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
| Words per line (avg) | 5 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 87 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 04, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 136 Views
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