Analysis of From “Phantasmion” - He Came Unlook'd For

Sara Coleridge 1802 (Keswick, Cumberland) – 1852 (London)



HE came unlook’d for, undesir’d,  
A sunrise in the northern sky,
More than the brightest dawn admir’d,  
To shine and then forever fly.  

His love, conferr’d without a claim,  
Perchance was like the fitful blaze,  
Which lives to light a steadier flame,
And, while that strengthens, fast decays.  

Glad fawn along the forest springing,  
Gay birds that breeze-like stir the leaves,  
Why hither haste, no message bringing,  
To solace one that deeply grieves?

Thou star that dost the skies adorn,  
So brightly heralding the day,  
Bring one more welcome than the morn,  
Or still in night’s dark prison stay.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GAGA
Poetic Form Pantoum 
Quatrain 
Metre 11111 0100101 1101011 11010101 1110101 01110101 111101001 01110101 110101010 11111101 110111010 11011101 11110101 11010001 11110101 11011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 618
Words 101
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 116
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
70

Sara Coleridge

Sara Coleridge was an English author and translator. She was the third child, out of four, and only daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sara Fricker. more…

All Sara Coleridge poems | Sara Coleridge Books

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