Analysis of Transition
Ernest Christopher Dowson 1867 – 1900
A little while to walk with thee, dear child;
To lean on thee my weak and weary head;
Then evening comes: the winter sky is wild,
The leafless trees are black, the leaves long dead.
A little while to hold thee and to stand,
By harvest-fields of bending golden corn;
Then the predestined silence, and thine hand,
Lost in the night, long and weary and forlorn.
A little while to love thee, scarcely time
To love thee well enough; then time to part,
To fare through wintry fields alone and climb
The frozen hills, not knowing where thou art.
Short summer-time and then, my heart's desire,
The winter and the darkness: one by one
The roses fall, the pale roses expire
Beneath the slow decadence of the sun.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 0101111111 1111110101 1101010111 0101110111 0101111011 1101110101 101010011 10011010001 0101111101 1111011111 1111010101 0101110111 11010111010 0100010111 0101011001 0101100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 695 |
Words | 130 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 137 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 16, 2023
- 39 sec read
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"Transition" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12824/transition>.
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