Analysis of Nothing Stays

Mark Van Doren 1894 (Vermilion County) – 1972 (Torrington)



Nothing stays
not even change,
That can grow tired
of it's own name;
The very thought
too much for it.

Somewhere in air
a stillness is,
So far, so thin-
But let it alone.
Whoever we are
it is not for us


Scheme XXXXXX XXXXXX
Poetic Form
Metre 101 1101 11110 1111 0101 1111 101 0101 1111 11101 01011 11111
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 201
Words 44
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 6
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 13
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 77
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

13 sec read
75

Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren was an American poet, writer and a critic, apart from being a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers including Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, John Berryman, and Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. more…

All Mark Van Doren poems | Mark Van Doren Books

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