Analysis of The Village Garden

Amy Levy 1861 (London) – 1889 (London)



Here, where your garden fenced about and still is,
Here, where the unmoved summer air is sweet
With mixed delight of lavender and lilies,
Dreaming I linger in the noontide heat.

Of many summers are the trees recorders,
The turf a carpet many summers wove;
Old-fashioned blossoms cluster in the borders,
Love-in-a-mist and crimson-hearted clove.

All breathes of peace and sunshine in the present,
All tells of bygone peace and bygone sun,
Of fruitful years accomplished, budding, crescent,
Of gentle seasons passing one by one.

Fain would I bide, but ever in the distance
A ceaseless voice is sounding clear and low;--
The city calls me with her old persistence,
The city calls me--I arise and go.

Of gentler souls this fragrant peace is guerdon;
For me, the roar and hurry of the town,
Wherein more lightly seems to press the burden
Of individual life that weighs me down.

I leave your garden to the happier comers
For whom its silent sweets are anodyne.
Shall I return? Who knows, in other summers
The peace my spirit longs for may be mine?


Scheme XAXA BCBC DEDE FGFG EHEH BEBX
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11110101011 1100110111 11011100010 101100011 11010101010 0101010101 11010100010 1001010101 1111010010 11111011 11010101010 1101010111 11111100010 0101110101 01011101010 0101110101 1101110111 1101010101 01110111010 1010011111 111101010010 11110111 11011101010 0111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,035
Words 188
Sentences 12
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 138
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

56 sec read
88

Amy Levy

Amy Levy was a British essayist, poet, and novelist best remembered for her feminist positions and her homosexual romances during the Victorian era. more…

All Amy Levy poems | Amy Levy Books

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    Which of these famous poems is written in villanelle form?
    A Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
    B The Owl And The Pussycat
    C Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
    D Funeral Blues