Analysis of I Shall Never Love the Snow Again
Robert Seymour Bridges 1844 (Walmer, Kent) – 1930 (Boars Hill, Berkshire)
I never shall love the snow again
Since Maurice died:
With corniced drift it blocked the lane,
And sheeted in a desolate plain
The country side.
The trees with silvery rime bedight
Their branches bare.
By day no sun appeared; by night
The hidden moon shed thievish light
In the misty air.
We fed the birds that flew around
In flocks to be fed:
No shelter in holly or brake they found,
The speckled thrush on the frozen ground
Lay frozen and dead.
We skated on stream and pond; we cut
The crinching snow
To Doric temple or Arctic hut;
We laughed and sang at nightfall, shut
By the fireside glow.
Yet grudged we our keen delights before
Maurice should come.
We said, 'In-door or out-of-door
We shall love life for a month or more,
When he is home.'
They brought him home; 'twas two days late
For Christmas Day:
Wrapped in white, in solemn state,
A flower in his hand, all still and straight
Our Maurice lay.
And two days ere the year outgave
We laid him low.
The best of us truly were not brave,
When we laid Maurice down in his grave
Under the snow.
Scheme | XABBA ACDDC EFEEF GHGGH IXIIX JKJJK LHLLH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (26%) |
Metre | 110110101 1011 1111101 01001001 0101 01110011 1101 11110111 0101111 00101 11011101 01111 1100101111 010110101 11001 110110111 011 110101101 1101111 10101 1111010101 0111 11011111 111110111 1111 11111111 1101 1010101 0100111101 10011 0111011 1111 011110011 111011011 1001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,022 |
Words | 201 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 117 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 136 Views
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