Analysis of Adonis
Hilda Doolittle 1886 (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) – 1961 (Zurich)
Each of us like you
has died once,
has passed through drift of wood-leaves,
cracked and bent
and tortured and unbent
in the winter-frost,
the burnt into gold points,
lighted afresh,
crisp amber, scales of gold-leaf,
gold turned and re-welded
in the sun;
each of us like you
has died once,
each of us has crossed an old wood-path
and found the winter-leaves
so golden in the sun-fire
that even the live wood-flowers
were dark.
Not the gold on the temple-front
where you stand
is as gold as this,
not the gold that fastens your sandals,
nor thee gold reft
through your chiselled locks,
is as gold as this last year's leaf,
not all the gold hammered and wrought
and beaten
on your lover's face.
brow and bare breast
is as golden as this:
each of us like you
has died once,
each of us like you
stands apart, like you
fit to be worshipped.
Scheme | ABcddxxxexf ABxcxxx xxgxdxexfxxg ABAax |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (54%) |
Metre | 11111 111 1111111 101 01001 00101 010111 1001 1101111 110110 001 11111 111 111111111 010101 11000110 11001110 01 10110101 111 11111 10111110 1111 1111 11111111 11011001 010 11101 1011 111011 11111 111 11111 10111 11110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 848 |
Words | 159 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 7, 12, 5 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 184 Views
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"Adonis" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19259/adonis>.
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