Analysis of When Last We Parted

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



When last we parted, thou wert young and fair,
How beautiful let fond remembrance say!
Alas! since then old time has stolen away
Full thirty years, leaving my temples bare.--
So has it perished like a thing of air,
The dream of love and youth!--now both are grey
Yet still remembering that delightful day,
Though time with his cold touch has blanched my hair,
Though I have suffered many years of pain
Since then, though I did never think to live
To hear that voice or see those eyes again,
I can a sad but cordial greeting give,
And for thy welfare breathe as warm a prayer--
As when I loved thee young and fair!


Scheme ABBAABBACDEFAA
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011101 1100110101 01111111001 1101101101 1111010111 0111011111 11010010101 1111111111 1111010111 1111110111 1111111101 1101110101 011111101 11111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 621
Words 119
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 479
Words per stanza (avg) 115
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 08, 2023

35 sec read
75

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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