Analysis of The Tuft of Flowers
Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)
I went to turn the grass once after one
Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.
The dew was gone that made his blade so keen
Before I came to view the levelled scene.
I looked for him behind an isle of trees;
I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.
But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,
And I must be, as he had been,—alone,
"As all must be," I said within my heart,
"Whether they work together or apart."
But as I said it, swift there passed me by
On noiseless wing a bewildered butterfly,
Seeking with memories grown dim over night
Some resting flower of yesterday's delight.
And once I marked his flight go round and round,
As where some flower lay withering on the ground.
And then he flew as far as eye could see,
And then on tremulous wing came back to me.
I thought of questions that have no reply,
And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;
But he turned first, and led my eye to look
At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,
A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared
Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.
I left my place to know them by their name,
Finding them butterfly-weed when I came.
The mower in the dew had loved them thus,
By leaving them to flourish, not for us,
Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him,
But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.
The butterfly and I had lit upon,
Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,
That made me hear the wakening birds around,
And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,
And feel a spirit kindred to my own;
So that henceforth I worked no more alone;
But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,
And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;
And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech
With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.
"Men work together," I told him from the heart,
"Whether they work together or apart."
Scheme | aa bb cc ad eE ff gg hh ii ff jj kk ll mm nn xx hh dd oo pp eE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011101 1110010101 0111111111 0111110101 1111011111 110111101 1111110111 0111111101 1111110111 1011010101 1111111111 111001010 10110011101 1101011001 0111111101 111101100101 0111111111 01110011111 1111011101 0111110111 1111011111 10111100101 0101110111 0101010111 1111111111 101101111 0100011111 1101110111 11111111011 111101101 010011101 001010101 111101101 01111100101 0101010111 1111111101 1111111111 0101111101 01011011001 1111111111 11010111101 1011010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,831 |
Words | 363 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 21 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 67 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 17 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 1:48 min read
- 320 Views
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