Analysis of At First. To Charlotte Cushman.
Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)
My crippled sense fares bow'd along
His uncompanioned way,
And wronged by death pays life with wrong
And I wake by night and dream by day.
And the Morning seems but fatigued Night
That hath wept his visage pale,
And the healthy mark 'twixt dark and light
In sickly sameness out doth fail.
And the woods stare strange, and the wind is dumb,
-- O Wind, pray talk again --
And the Hand of the Frost spreads stark and numb
As Death's on the deadened window-pane.
Still dumb, thou Wind, old voluble friend?
And the middle of the day is cold,
And the heart of eve beats lax i' the end
As a legend's climax poorly told.
Oh vain the up-straining of the hands
In the chamber late at night,
Oh vain the complainings, the hot demands,
The prayers for a sound, the tears for a sight.
No word from over the starry line,
No motion felt in the dark,
And never a day gives ever a sign
Or a dream sets seal with palpable mark.
And O my God, how slight it were,
How nothing, thou All! to thee,
That a kiss or a whisper might fall from her
Down by the way of Time to me:
Or some least grace of the body of love,
-- Mere wafture of floating-by,
Mere sense of unseen smiling above,
Mere hint sincere of a large blue eye,
Mere dim receipt of sad delight
From Nearness warm in the air,
What time with the passing of the night
She also passed, somehow, somewhere.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EXEX FGFG HCHC IJIJ KLKL MNMN COCO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 11011101 111 01111111 011110111 001011011 1111101 001011101 01010111 0011100111 111101 0011011101 11101101 111111001 001010111 0011111101 1011101 110110101 0010111 11010101 0110101101 111100101 1101001 0100111001 1011111001 01111110 1101111 10110101110 11011111 1111101011 111101 111011001 110110111 11011101 111001 111010101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,321 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 114 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 117 Views
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"At First. To Charlotte Cushman." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34742/at-first.-to-charlotte-cushman.>.
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