Analysis of An English Wood
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
This valley wood is pledged
To the set shape of things,
And reasonably hedged:
Here are no harpies fledged,
No rocs may clap their wings,
Nor gryphons wave their stings.
Here, poised in quietude,
Calm elementals brood
On the set shape of things:
They fend away alarms
From this green wood.
Here nothing is that harms -
No bulls with lungs of brass,
No toothed or spiny grass,
No tree whose clutching arms
Drink blood when travellers pass,
No mount of glass;
No bardic tongues unfold
Satires or charms.
Only, the lawns are soft,
The tree-stems, grave and old;
Slow branches sway aloft,
The evening air comes cold,
The sunset scatters gold.
Small grasses toss and bend,
Small pathways idly tend
Towards no fearful end.
Scheme | ABAABBACBDEDFFDFFGDHGIGGJJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111 101111 010001 11111 111111 110111 1101 111 101111 110101 1111 110111 111111 111101 111101 1111001 1111 11101 1011 100111 011101 110101 010111 0111 110101 11101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 699 |
Words | 127 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 27 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 567 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 125 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 87 Views
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"An English Wood" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31099/an-english-wood>.
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