Analysis of The Past is the Present
Marianne Moore 1887 (Kirkwood) – 1972 (New York City)
If external action is effete
and rhyme is outmoded,
I shall revert to you,
Habakkuk, as when in a Bible class
the teacher was speaking of unrhymed verse.
He said - and I think I repeat his exact words -
"Hebrew poetry is prose
with a sort of heightened consciousness." Ecstasy affords
the occasion and expediency determines the form.
| Scheme | ABCDEFGHI |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Nonet (22%) |
| Metre | 101010101 01110 110111 11100101 010110111 110111011011 1010011 10111010010001 001000100001001 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 334 |
| Words | 62 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 9 |
| Lines Amount | 9 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
| Words per line (avg) | 7 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 265 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 17, 2023
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