Analysis of Love Among The Ruins
Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles,
Miles and miles
On the solitary pastures where our sheep
Half-asleep
Tinkle homeward thro' the twilight, stray or stop
As they crop---
Was the site once of a city great and gay,
(So they say)
Of our country's very capital, its prince
Ages since
Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far
Peace or war.
Now,---the country does not even boast a tree,
As you see,
To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills
From the hills
Intersect and give a name to, (else they run
Into one)
Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires
Up like fires
O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall
Bounding all,
Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed,
Twelve abreast.
And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass
Never was!
Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads
And embeds
Every vestige of the city, guessed alone,
Stock or stone---
Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe
Long ago;
Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame
Struck them tame;
And that glory and that shame alike, the gold
Bought and sold.
Now,---the single little turret that remains
On the plains,
By the caper overrooted, by the gourd
Overscored,
While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks
Through the chinks---
Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time
Sprang sublime,
And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced
As they raced,
And the monarch and his minions and his dames
Viewed the games.
And I know, while thus the quiet-coloured eve
Smiles to leave
To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece
In such peace,
And the slopes and rills in undistinguished grey
Melt away---
That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair
Waits me there
In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul
For the goal,
When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb
Till I come.
But he looked upon the city, every side,
Far and wide,
All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades'
Colonnades,
All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts,---and then,
All the men!
When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand,
Either hand
On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace
Of my face,
Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech
Each on each.
In one year they sent a million fighters forth
South and North,
And they built their gods a brazen pillar high
As the sky,
Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force---
Gold, of course.
Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!
Earth's returns
For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!
Shut them in,
With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!
Love is best.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEXX FFAXGGXXHHII XXAAJJKKLLMM NNXIOOPPQQRR SSTTDDUUVVWW XXXAYYZZ1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 II |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101011101 101 10100101101 101 1010101111 111 10111010101 111 110101010011 101 11101010101 111 10101110101 111 1010111101 101 0101011111 011 10101010111 1110 100101010101 101 11101111111 101 01100010111 101 1010111011 01 100101010101 111 1010111101 101 11101111111 111 01100110101 101 10101010101 101 10101101 1 1010111101 101 101010100101 101 001011101001 111 0010110011 101 01111010101 111 1110110101001 011 0010100101 101 10111010101 111 001010111 101 10111111101 111 111010101001 101 10101110101 1 101101001 101 11111111111 101 11101010101 111 11111010101 111 01111010101 101 01111010101 101 101010100011 111 1111110111 101 11100110101 110 11100110001 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,725 |
Words | 470 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 290 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 13, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 440 Views
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"Love Among The Ruins" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30377/love-among-the-ruins>.
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