Analysis of Couleur de Rose

Helen Hunt Jackson 1830 (Amherst, Massachusetts) – 1885 (San Francisco)



All things to-day 'Couleur de rose,'
I see,-oh, why?
I know, and my dear love she knows,
Why, oh, why!
On both my eyes her lips she set,
All red and warm and dewy wet,
As she passed by.
The kiss did not my eyelids close,
But like a rosy vapor goes,
Where'er I sit, where'er I lie,
Before my every glance, and shows
All things to-day 'Couleur de rose.'

Would it last thus? Alas, who knows?
Men ask and sigh:
They say it fades, 'Couleur de rose.'
Why, oh, why?
Without swift joy and sweet surprise,
Surely those lips upon my eyes
Could never lie,
Though both our heads were white as snows,
And though the bitterest storm that blows,
Of trouble and adversity,
Had bent us low: all life still shows
To eyes that love 'Couleur de rose.'


Scheme AbaBccbxabaA abaBddbaaxaa
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111 1111 11011111 111 11110111 11010101 1111 0111111 11010101 10111011 011100101 1111111 11110111 1101 1111111 111 01110101 10110111 1101 111010111 010100111 11000100 11111111 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 716
Words 147
Sentences 10
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 12, 12
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 273
Words per stanza (avg) 70
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
71

Helen Hunt Jackson

Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, born Helen Fiske, was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. more…

All Helen Hunt Jackson poems | Helen Hunt Jackson Books

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