Analysis of March Elegy
Anna Akhmatova 1889 (Odessa) – 1966 (Moscow)
I have enough treasures from the past
to last me longer than I need, or want.
You know as well as I . . . malevolent memory
won't let go of half of them:
a modest church, with its gold cupola
slightly askew; a harsh chorus
of crows; the whistle of a train;
a birch tree haggard in a field
as if it had just been sprung from jail;
a secret midnight conclave
of monumental Bible-oaks;
and a tiny rowboat that comes drifting out
of somebody's dreams, slowly foundering.
Winter has already loitered here,
lightly powdering these fields,
casting an impenetrable haze
that fills the world as far as the horizon.
I used to think that after we are gone
there's nothing, simply nothing at all.
Then who's that wandering by the porch
again and calling us by name?
Whose face is pressed against the frosted pane?
What hand out there is waving like a branch?
By way of reply, in that cobwebbed corner
a sunstruck tatter dances in the mirror.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUGVWW |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110101 1111011111 1111110100100 1111111 0101111010 10010110 11010101 01110001 111111111 01011 1010101 0010111101 110110100 10101011 1010011 101010001 11011110010 1111110111 110101011 111100101 01010111 1111010101 1111110101 1110101110 0110100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 913 |
Words | 170 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 25 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 730 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 171 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 459 Views
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"March Elegy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3010/march-elegy>.
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