Analysis of My Heart, When First The Black-Bird Sings
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
MY heart, when first the blackbird sings,
My heart drinks in the song:
Cool pleasure fills my bosom through
And spreads each nerve along.
My bosom eddies quietly,
My heart is stirred and cool
As when a wind-moved briar sweeps
A stone into a pool
But unto thee, when thee I meet,
My pulses thicken fast,
As when the maddened lake grows black
And ruffles in the blast.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11110101 111001 11011101 011101 11010100 111101 11011101 010101 11011111 110101 1101111 010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 363 |
Words | 70 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 21 sec read
- 417 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"My Heart, When First The Black-Bird Sings" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31641/my-heart%2C-when-first-the-black-bird-sings>.
Discuss this Robert Louis Stevenson poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In