Analysis of Babyhood
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
A baby shines as bright
If winter or if May be
On eyes that keep in sight
A baby.
Though dark the skies or grey be,
It fills our eyes with light,
If midnight or midday be.
Love hails it, day and night,
The sweetest thing that may be
Yet cannot praise aright
A baby.
All heaven, in every baby born,
All absolute of earthly leaven,
Reveals itself, though man may scorn
All heaven.
Yet man might feel all sin forgiven,
All grief appeased, all pain outworn,
By this one revelation given.
Soul, now forget thy burdens borne:
Heart, be thy joys now seven times seven:
Love shows in light more bright than morn
All heaven.
What likeness may define, and stray not
From truth's exactest way,
A baby's beauty? Love can say not
What likeness may.
The Mayflower loveliest held in May
Of all that shine and stay not
Laughs not in rosier disarray.
Sleek satin, swansdown, buds that play not
As yet with winds that play,
Would fain be matched with this, and may not:
What likeness may?
Rose, round whose bed
Dawn's cloudlets close,
Earth's brightest-bred
Rose!
No song, love knows,
May praise the head
Your curtain shows.
Ere sleep has fled,
The whole child glows
One sweet live red
Rose.
Scheme | abaB bab abaB cdcD dcd cdcD efeF fef efeF gxgH hgh ghgH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010111 1101111 111101 010 1101111 1110111 11111 111101 0101111 11011 010 1100100101 11011010 01011111 110 111111010 1101111 11101010 11011101 1111110110 11011111 110 110101011 1111 010101111 1101 0101101 1111011 11010001 11011111 111111 111111011 1101 1111 111 1101 1 1111 1101 1101 1111 0111 1111 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,171 |
Words | 219 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 76 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 75 Views
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"Babyhood" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1278/babyhood>.
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