Analysis of At Stonehenge
Katharine Lee Bates 1859 (Falmouth) – 1929 (Wellesley)
Grim stones whose gray lips keep your secret well,
Our hands that touch you touch an ancient terror,
An ancient woe, colossal citadel
Of some fierce faith, some heaven-affronting error.
Rude-built, as if young Titans on this wold
Once played with ponderous blocks a striding giant
Had brought from oversea, till child more bold
Tumbled their temple down with foot defiant.
Upon your fatal altar Redbreast combs
A fluttering plume, and flocks of eager swallows
Dip fearlessly to choose their April homes
Amid your crevices and storm-beat hollows.
Even so in elemental mysteries,
Portentous, vast, august, uncomprehended,
Do we dispose our little lives for ease,
By their unconscious courtesies befriended.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFEFGCGH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111101 101111111010 110101010 111111001010 1111110111 111100101010 111011111 10110111010 011101011 010010111010 11111101 01110001110 1010010100 0101101 11011010111 1110100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 697 |
Words | 112 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 575 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 110 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 88 Views
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