Analysis of Memory
Anne Brontë 1820 (Thornton, West Yorkshire) – 1849 (Scarborough, North Yorkshire)
Brightly the sun of summer shone,
Green fields and waving woods upon,
And soft winds wandered by;
Above, a sky of purest blue,
Around, bright flowers of loveliest hue,
Allured the gazer's eye.
But what were all these charms to me,
When one sweet breath of memory
Came gently wafting by?
I closed my eyes against the day,
And called my willing soul away,
From earth, and air, and sky;
That I might simply fancy there
One little flower -- a primrose fair,
Just opening into sight;
As in the days of infancy,
An opening primrose seemed to me
A source of strange delight.
Sweet Memory! ever smile on me;
Nature's chief beauties spring from thee,
Oh, still thy tribute bring!
Still make the golden crocus shine
Among the flowers the most divine,
The glory of the spring.
Still in the wall-flower's fragrance dwell;
And hover round the slight blue bell,
My childhood's darling flower.
Smile on the little daisy still,
The buttercup's bright goblet fill
With all thy former power.
For ever hang thy dreamy spell
Round mountain star and heather bell,
And do not pass away
From sparkling frost, or wreathed snow,
And whisper when the wild winds blow,
Or rippling waters play.
Is childhood, then, so all divine?
Or Memory, is the glory thine,
That haloes thus the past?
Not all divine; its pangs of grief,
(Although, perchance, their stay be brief,)
Are bitter while they last.
Nor is the glory all thine own,
For on our earliest joys alone
That holy light is cast.
With such a ray, no spell of thine
Can make our later pleasures shine,
Though long ago they passed.
Scheme | AXBCCBDDBEEB FFGDDG DDHIIH JJKLLK JJEMME IINOON AANIIN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10011101 11010101 011101 01011101 01110111 01011 11011111 11111100 110101 11110101 01110101 110101 11110101 11010011 1100011 10011100 11001111 011101 110010111 10110111 111101 11010101 010100101 010101 10011101 01010111 111010 11010101 011101 1111010 11011101 11010101 011101 1101111 01010111 1100101 1111101 110010101 11101 11011111 1011111 110111 11010111 1110100101 110111 11011111 111010101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,624 |
Words | 281 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 174 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 150 Views
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"Memory" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3153/memory>.
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