Analysis of From “Phantasmion” - One Face Alone

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



ONE face alone, one face alone,  
       These eyes require;  
But, when that long’d-for sight is shown,  
       What fatal fire  
Shoots through my veins a keen and liquid flame,
That melts each fibre of my wasting frame!  

One voice alone, one voice alone,  
       I pine to hear;  
But, when its meek mellifluous tone  
       Usurps mine ear,
Those slavish chains about my soul are wound,  
Which ne’er, till death itself, can be unbound.  

One gentle hand, one gentle hand,  
       I fain would hold;  
But, when it seems at my command,
       My own grows cold;  
Then low to earth I bend in sickly swoon,  
Like lilies drooping ’mid the blaze of noon.


Scheme ABABCC ADADEE FGFGHH
Poetic Form
Metre 11011101 1110 11111111 11010 1111010101 1111011101 11011101 1111 111111 111 1101011111 1111011101 11011101 1111 11111101 1111 1111110101 1101010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 661
Words 111
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 152
Words per stanza (avg) 36
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
57

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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