Analysis of On First Entering Westminster Abbey

Louise Imogen Guiney 1861 (Roxbury) – 1920



Thabor of England! since my light is short
And faint, O rather by the sun anew
Of timeless passion set my dial true,
That with thy saints and thee I may consort,
And wafted in the calm Chaucerian port
Of poets, seem a little sail long due,
And be as one the call of memory drew
Unto the saddle void since Agincourt!

Not now for secular love's unquiet lease
Receive my soul, who rapt in thee erewhile
Hath broken tryst with transitory things;
But seal with her a marriage and a peace
Eternal, on thine Edward's holy isle,
Above the stormy sea of ending kings.


Scheme ABBAABBA CDECDE
Poetic Form Petrarchan sonnet 
Metre 111011111 0111010101 1101011101 1111011101 01000111 1101010111 01110111001 100101110 111100111 011111011 110111001 1110010001 0101110101 0101011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 566
Words 107
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 220
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
88

Louise Imogen Guiney

Louise Imogen Guiney was an American poet, essayist and editor born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. more…

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