Analysis of Sonnet 08
Alan Seeger 1888 (New York City) – 1916
Oh, love of woman, you are known to be
A passion sent to plague the hearts of men;
For every one you bring felicity
Bringing rebuffs and wretchedness to ten.
I have been oft where human life sold cheap
And seen men's brains spilled out about their ears
And yet that never cost me any sleep;
I lived untroubled and I shed no tears.
Fools prate how war is an atrocious thing;
I always knew that nothing it implied
Equalled the agony of suffering
Of him who loves and loves unsatisfied.
War is a refuge to a heart like this;
Love only tells it what true torture is.
Scheme | ABABCDCEFGFGHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 0101110111 11001110100 10010111 1111110111 0111110111 0111011101 1101001111 1111110101 111110101 101001100 111101010 1101010111 1101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 570 |
Words | 110 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 444 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 108 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 39 Views
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