Analysis of The Crossed Apple
Louise Bogan 1897 (Livermore Falls) – 1970 (New York City)
I’ve come to give you fruit from out my orchard,
Of wide report.
I have trees there that bear me many apples.
Of every sort:
Clear, streaked; red and russet; green and golden;
Sour and sweet.
This apple’s from a tree yet unbeholden,
Where two kinds meet, -
So that this side is red without a dapple,
And this side’s hue
Is clear and snowy. It’s a lovely apple.
It is for you.
Within are five black pips as big as peas,
As you will find,
Potent to breed you five great apple trees
Of varying kind:
To breed you wood for fire, leaves for shade,
Apples for sauce.
Oh, this is a good apple for a maid,
It is a cross,
Fine on the finer, so the flesh is tight,
And grained like silk.
Sweet Burning gave the red side, and the white
Is Meadow Milk.
Eat it, and you will taste more than the fruit:
The blossom, too,
The sun, the air, the darkness at the root,
The rain, the dew,
The earth we came to, and the time we flee,
The fire and the breast.
I claim the white part, maiden, that’s for me.
You take the rest.
Scheme | XAXA BCBC DEDE FGFG HIHI JKJK LELE DMXM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11111111110 1101 11111111010 11001 1110101010 1001 11010111 1111 1111110101 0111 11010101010 1111 0111111111 1111 1011111101 11001 1111110111 1011 1110110101 1101 1101010111 0111 1101011001 111 1101111101 0101 0101010101 0101 0111100111 010001 1101110111 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 992 |
Words | 203 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 09, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 124 Views
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"The Crossed Apple" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26145/the-crossed-apple>.
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