Analysis of Still I Love To Rhyme

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



STILL I love to rhyme, and still more, rhyming, to wander
Far from the commoner way;
Old-time trills and falls by the brook-side still do I ponder,
Dreaming to-morrow to-day.

Come here, come, revive me, Sun-God, teach me, Apollo,
Measures descanted before;
Since I ancient verses, I emulous follow,
Prints in the marbles of yore.

Still strange, strange, they sound in old-young raiment invested,
Songs for the brain to forget -
Young song-birds elate to grave old temples benested
Piping and chirruping yet.

Thoughts?  No thought has yet unskilled attempted to flutter
Trammelled so vilely in verse;
He who writes but aims at fame and his bread and his butter,
Won with a groan and a curse.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF AGAG
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1111101110110 1101001 11101101111110 1011011 1110111111010 10101 1110101110 1001011 111110111010 1101101 11101111101 10011 1111101010110 11101 11111110110110 1101001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 683
Words 119
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 135
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 10, 2023

35 sec read
131

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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