Analysis of The Lords of Life

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)



The lords of life, the lords of life,-
I saw them pass,
In their own guise,
Like and unlike,
Portly and grim,
Use and Surprise,
Surface and Dream,
Succession swift, and spectral Wrong,
Temperament without a tongue,
And the inventor of the game
Omnipresent without name;-
Some to see, some to be guessed,
They marched from east to west:
Little man, least of all,
Among the legs of his guardians tall,
Walked about with puzzled look:-
Him by the hand dear nature took;
Dearest nature, strong and kind,
Whispered, 'Darling, never mind!
Tomorrow they will wear another face,
The founder thou! these are thy race!'


Scheme ABCDECFGHIIJJKKLLMMNN
Poetic Form
Metre 01110111 1111 0111 1001 1001 1001 1001 0101011 1000101 00010101 010011 1111111 111111 101111 0101111001 1011101 11011101 1010101 1010101 011110101 01011111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 597
Words 111
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 21
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 472
Words per stanza (avg) 105
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
120

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. more…

All Ralph Waldo Emerson poems | Ralph Waldo Emerson Books

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