Analysis of Before Dawn
Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)
Life! Austere arbiter of each man's fate,
By whom he learns that Nature's steadfast laws
Are as decrees immutable; O pause
Your even forward march! Not yet too late
Teach me the needed lesson, when to wait
Inactive as a ship when no wind draws
To stretch the loosened cordage. One implores
Thy clemency, whose wilfulness innate
Has gone uncurbed and roughshod while the years
Have lengthened into decades; now distressed
He knows no rule by which to move or stay,
And teased with restlessness and desperate fears
He dares not watch in silence thy wise way
Bringing about results none could have guessed.
Scheme | ABBAABCADEFDFE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011001111 111111011 1101010011 1101011111 1101010111 0101011111 1101010101 11001101 111011101 1100101101 1111111111 0111000101 1111010111 1001011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 611 |
Words | 106 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 488 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 104 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 11, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 113 Views
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"Before Dawn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2204/before-dawn>.
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