Analysis of Good-by
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)
Good-by, proud world, I'm going home,
Thou'rt not my friend, and I'm not thine;
Long through thy weary crowds I roam;
A river-ark on the ocean brine,
Long I've been tossed like the driven foam,
But now, proud world, I'm going home.
Good-by to Flattery's fawning face,
To Grandeur, with his wise grimace,
To upstart Wealth's averted eye,
To supple Office low and high,
To crowded halls, to court, and street,
To frozen hearts, and hasting feet,
To those who go, and those who come,
Good-by, proud world, I'm going home.
I'm going to my own hearth-stone
Bosomed in yon green hills, alone,
A secret nook in a pleasant land,
Whose groves the frolic fairies planned;
Where arches green the livelong day
Echo the blackbird's roundelay,
And vulgar feet have never trod
A spot that is sacred to thought and God.
Oh, when I am safe in my sylvan home,
I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;
And when I am stretched beneath the pines
Where the evening star so holy shines,
I laugh at the lore and the pride of man,
At the sophist schools, and the learned clan;
For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet.
Scheme | Ababaa xxccddxA eeffxxgg aahhiidd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 11111101 11110111 11110111 010110101 111110101 11111101 1111101 10111110 1110101 11010101 11011101 11010101 11110111 11111101 11011111 1011101 010100101 11010101 1101011 10011 01011101 0111101101 1111101101 111011101 011110101 101011101 1110100111 10110011 1111101101 110011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,115 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 218 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 45 Views
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"Good-by" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29816/good-by>.
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