Analysis of 'Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
'Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch,
That nearer, every Day,
Kept narrowing its boiling Wheel
Until the Agony
Toyed coolly with the final inch
Of your delirious Hem—
And you dropt, lost,
When something broke—
And let you from a Dream—
As if a Goblin with a Gauge—
Kept measuring the Hours—
Until you felt your Second
Weigh, helpless, in his Paws—
And not a Sinew—stirred—could help,
And sense was setting numb—
When God—remembered—and the Fiend
Let go, then, Overcome—
As if your Sentence stood—pronounced—
And you were frozen led
From Dungeon's luxury of Doubt
To Gibbets, and the Dead—
And when the Film had stitched your eyes
A Creature gasped "Reprieve"!
Which Anguish was the utterest—then—
To perish, or to live?
Scheme | XXXX XXXXX XXXX XAXA XBXB XXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (24%) |
Metre | 11010101 1101001 11001101 010100 11010101 1101001 0111 1101 011101 11010101 1100010 0111110 110011 0101111 011101 11010001 11110 11110101 010101 1110011 11001 01011111 010101 1101011 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 737 |
Words | 125 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 160 Views
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"'Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12377/%27twas-like-a-maelstrom%2C-with-a-notch>.
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