Analysis of To Olivia
Francis Thompson 1859 (City of Preston, Lancashire) – 1907 (London)
I fear to love thee, Sweet, because
Love's the ambassador of loss;
White flake of childhood, clinging so
To my soiled raiment, thy shy snow
At tenderest touch will shrink and go.
Love me not, delightful child.
My heart, by many snares beguiled,
Has grown timorous and wild.
It would fear thee not at all,
Wert thou not so harmless-small.
Because thy arrows, not yet dire,
Are still unbarbed with destined fire,
I fear thee more than hadst thou stood
Full-panoplied in womanhood.
Scheme | ABCCCDDDEEFGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111101 10010011 1111101 1111111 1111101 1110101 11110101 1110001 1111111 1111101 01110111 11111010 11111111 11010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 486 |
Words | 85 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 376 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 83 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 15, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 114 Views
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"To Olivia" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13952/to-olivia>.
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