Analysis of In The Underworld

Isaac Rosenberg 1890 (Bristol) – 1918 (Somme)



I have lived in the underworld so long:
How can you, a creature of light,
Without terror understand the song
And unmoved hear what moves in night?

I am a spirit that yours has found,
Strange, undelightful, obscure,
Created by some other God, and bound
In terrible darkness, breathing breath impure.

Creature of light and happiness,
Deeper the darkness was when you,
With your bright terror eddying the distress,
Grazed the dark waves and shivering further flew.


Scheme ABAB CDCD XEXE
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 111001011 11101011 01100101 00111101 110101111 1101 0101110101 01001010101 10110100 10010111 111101001 10110100101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 459
Words 79
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 15, 2023

23 sec read
364

Isaac Rosenberg

Isaac Rosenberg was an English poet of the First World War. more…

All Isaac Rosenberg poems | Isaac Rosenberg Books

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