Analysis of Helen
Hilda Doolittle 1886 (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) – 1961 (Zurich)
All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre as of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.
All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills.
Greece sees, unmoved,
God's daughter, born of love,
the beauty of cool feet
and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid,
white ash amid funereal cypresses.
Scheme | AXXBB AXXXAX XXXXCCA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111 0110011 0101110 111 0011 111 011111 101101 111101 010011 011 1101 110111 010111 011 110101 101101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 436 |
Words | 80 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 6, 7 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 117 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 24 sec read
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"Helen" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19269/helen>.
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