Analysis of Spoils Of The Dead
Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)
Two fairies it was
On a still summer day
Came forth in the woods
With the flowers to play.
The flowers they plucked
They cast on the ground
For others, and those
For still others they found.
Flower-guided it was
That they came as they ran
On something that lay
In the shape of a man.
The snow must have made
The feathery bed
When this one fell
On the sleep of the dead.
But the snow was gone
A long time ago,
And the body he wore
Nigh gone with the snow.
The fairies drew near
And keenly espied
A ring on his hand
And a chain at his side.
They knelt in the leaves
And eerily played
With the glittering things,
And were not afraid.
And when they went home
To hide in their burrow,
They took them along
To play with to-morrow.
When you came on death,
Did you not come flower-guided
Like the elves in the wood?
I remember that I did.
But I recognised death
With sorrow and dread,
And I hated and hate
The spoils of the dead.
Scheme | ABCBDEFEAGBGHIJIKLMLNBOPQHRHSLTLUVWXUIYI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (33%) Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 11011 101101 11001 101011 01011 11101 11001 111011 101011 111111 11011 001101 01111 01001 1111 101101 10111 01101 001011 11101 01011 0101 01111 001111 11001 01001 101001 00101 01111 110110 11101 111110 11111 11111010 101001 1010111 1111 11001 011001 01101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 929 |
Words | 186 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 718 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 184 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 249 Views
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