Analysis of Etheline
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
The heart that once was rich with light,
And happy in your grace,
Now lieth cold beneath the scorn
That gathers on your face;
And every joy it knew before,
And every templed dream,
Is paler than the dying flash
On yonder mountain stream.
The soul, regretting foundered bliss
Amid the wreck of years,
Hath mourned it with intensity
Too deep for human tears!
The forest fadeth underneath
The blast that rushes by --
The dripping leaves are white with death,
But Love will never die!
We both have seen the starry moss
That clings where Ruin reigns,
And ~one~ must know ~his~ lonely breast
Affection still retains;
Through all the sweetest hopes of life,
That clustered round and round,
Are lying now, like withered things,
Forsaken -- on the ground.
'Tis hard to think of what we were,
And what we might have been,
Had not an evil spirit crept
Across the tranquil scene:
Had fervent feelings in your soul
Not failed nor ceased to shine
As pure as those existing on,
And burning still in mine.
Had every treasure at your feet
That I was wont to pour,
Been never thrown like worthless weeds
Upon a barren shore!
The bitter edge of grief has passed,
I would not now upbraid;
Or count to you the broken vows,
So often idly made!
I would not cross your path to chase
The falsehood from your brow --
I ~know~, with all that borrowed light,
You are not happy now:
Since those that once have trampled down
Affection's early claim,
Have lost a peace they need not hope
To find on earth again.
Scheme | ABXBCDXDXXXX XEXEXFXFXGXG XXXXXHXHXCXC XIXIBJAJXXXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111111 010011 1110101 110111 010011101 010011 1110101 110101 01010101 010111 11110100 111101 010101 011101 01011111 111101 11110101 111101 01111101 010101 11010111 110101 11011101 010101 11111110 011111 11110101 010101 11010011 111111 11110101 010101 110010111 111111 11011101 010101 01011111 11111 11110101 110101 11111111 01111 1111111 111101 11111101 1101 11011111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,489 |
Words | 274 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 12, 12, 12 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 290 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 68 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 20 Views
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"Etheline" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17481/etheline>.
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