Analysis of Palm Tree
Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)
Palm-tree: single-legged giant,
topping other trees,
peering at the firmament -
It longs to pierce the black cloud-ceiling
and fly away, away,
if only it had wings.
The tree seems to express its wish
in the tossing of its head:
its fronds heave and swish -
It thinks, Maybe my leaves are feathers,
and nothing stops me now
from rising on their flutter.
All day the fronds the windblown tree
soar and flap and shudder
as though it thinks it can fly,
As though it wanders in the skies,
travelling who knows where,
wheeling past the stars -
And then as soon as the wind dies down,
the fronds subside, subside:
the mind of the tree returns.
To earth, recalls that earth is its mother:
and then it likes once more
its earthly corner.
Scheme | AXAXXX BXBXXC XCXXXX XXXCXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101010 10101 10101 111101110 010101 110111 01110111 0010111 11101 111011110 010111 1101110 1101011 101010 1111111 11110001 100111 10101 011110111 010101 0110101 111111110 011111 11010 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 714 |
Words | 136 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 142 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 342 Views
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"Palm Tree" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29503/palm-tree>.
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