Analysis of Medusa

Louise Bogan 1897 (Livermore Falls) – 1970 (New York City)



I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved, -- a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.

When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.

This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.

The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.

And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.


Scheme XAXA XBXXB XCXC XDED XEXE
Poetic Form
Metre 11110100111 10011 1010111011 1001011 10110011 00101 1110101101 01110101010 1001 110110101 101101 01110101111 1011 0101110111 0011111 011111011 1101 01111101 1001101 11101011110001 011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 737
Words 146
Sentences 11
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 5, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
76

Louise Bogan

Louise Bogan was an American poet. more…

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