Analysis of Roads
Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)
I know a country laced with roads,
They join the hills and they span the brooks,
They weave like a shuttle between broad fields,
And slide discreetly through hidden nooks.
They are canopied like a Persian dome
And carpeted with orient dyes.
They are myriad-voiced, and musical,
And scented with happiest memories.
O Winding roads that I know so well,
Every twist and turn, every hollow and hill!
They are set in my heart to a pulsing tune
Gay as a honey-bee humming in June.
'T is the rhythmic beat of a horse's feet
And the pattering paws of a sheep-dog bitch;
'T is the creaking trees, and the singing breeze,
And the rustle of leaves in the road-side ditch.
A cow in a meadow shakes her bell
And the notes cut sharp through the autumn air,
Each chattering brook bears a fleet of leaves
Their cargo the rainbow, and just now where
The sun splashed bright on the road ahead
A startled rabbit quivered and fled.
O Uphill roads and roads that dip down!
You curl your sun-spattered length along,
And your march is beaten into a song
By the softly ringing hoofs of a horse
And the panting breath of the dogs I love.
The pageant of Autumn follows its course
And the blue sky of Autumn laughs above.
And the song and the country become as one,
I see it as music, I hear it as light;
Prismatic and shimmering, trembling to tone,
The land of desire, my soul's delight.
And always it beats in my listening ears
With the gentle thud of a horse's stride,
With the swift-falling steps of many dogs,
Following, following at my side.
O Roads that journey to fairyland!
Radiant highways whose vistas gleam,
Leading me on, under crimson leaves,
To the opaline gates of the Castles of Dream.
Scheme | XAXAXXXBCXDDXEBE CFGFHHXIIJKJK XLXLXMXMXNGN |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 110101101 1110100111 010101101 11110101 01001101 1110010100 0101100100 110111111 1001011001001 11101110101 1101011001 11010110101 001110111 11010100101 00101100111 01001101 0011110101 1100110111 11010111 011110101 01010101 111101111 111110101 0111100101 1010101101 0010110111 0101101011 0011110101 00100100111 11111011111 010010010011 0110101101 0111011001 1010110101 1011011101 100100111 11110110 10011101 101110101 10101101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,683 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 13, 12 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 440 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 102 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 17, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 78 Views
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"Roads" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2280/roads>.
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