Analysis of Spirit Fear.



I look with half unfriendly eyes
Into the casual eyes I meet,
As if my spirit feared surprise,
Dim-memoried with some old defeat.
In a far life it may be, when
It breathed in a monastic cell,
And found a fallacy in men
More sad than any tongue can tell
Or flashing in a warrior's fame
A sword for friendship fiercely drew
But turned to dust an honored name
And made life's mead a bitter brew.
And still like an ancestral stain
The memory on the spirit lies,
And still it fears to meet again
The light of those accusing eyes


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGACA
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 010100111 11110101 1111101 00111111 11000101 01010001 11110111 1100011 01110101 11111101 01110101 01110101 010010101 01111101 01110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 516
Words 103
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 413
Words per stanza (avg) 101
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
73

Robert Crawford

Robert Crawford FRSE FBA is a Scottish poet, scholar and critic. He is currently Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.  more…

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