Analysis of Playmates
Katharine Lee Bates 1859 (Falmouth) – 1929 (Wellesley)
SUMMER fervors slacken;
Sumac torches dim;
There's bronze upon the bracken;
September has a whim
For carmine, pearl and amber
Touches on her green;
Busy squirrels clamber;
Restless birds convene.
Where Indian pipe still blanches,
Where hoary lichen flakes
Forest trunks and branches,
The golden foxglove makes
A mimic wood that tosses
Warning to the trees,
Then droops upon the mosses,
Heavy with bloom and bees.
What rumbelow of revel
Deep in those honey-jars!
A saffron moth, with level
And languid motion, stars
The air until he settles
At the last pink-clover inn,
Ignoring prouder petals
That would his favor win.
Among those wildwood vagrants
I strolled, alone no more.
Was it the sweet-fern fragrance
That stirred a long-sealed door
Of Time's enchanted tower?
A little maid ran free
And for one sunny hour
My childhood played with me.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEEEEEEEEFEFEEGEGEHEHCICI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10110 10101 1101010 010101 1101010 10101 101010 10101 1100111 110101 101010 01011 0101110 10101 1101010 101101 11110 101101 0101110 010101 0101110 1011101 0101010 111101 011110 110111 1101110 110111 1101010 010111 0111010 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 818 |
Words | 141 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 32 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 676 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 139 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 105 Views
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"Playmates" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24890/playmates>.
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