Analysis of With a Copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets on Leaving College

Alan Seeger 1888 (New York City) – 1916



As one of some fat tillage dispossessed,
Weighing the yield of these four faded years,
If any ask what fruit seems loveliest,
What lasting gold among the garnered ears, --
Ah, then I'll say what hours I had of thine,
Therein I reaped Time's richest revenue,
Read in thy text the sense of David's line,
Through thee achieved the love that Shakespeare knew.
Take then his book, laden with mine own love
As flowers made sweeter by deep-drunken rain,
That when years sunder and between us move
Wide waters, and less kindly bonds constrain,
Thou may'st turn here, dear boy, and reading see
Some part of what thy friend once felt for thee.


Scheme ABABCDCDEFGFHH
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101 1001111101 11011111 1101010101 11111101111 011111010 1011011101 110101111 1111101111 11011011101 1111000111 1100110101 11111110101 1111111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 641
Words 115
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 498
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
68

Alan Seeger

Alan Seeger was an American poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme serving in the French Foreign Legion. more…

All Alan Seeger poems | Alan Seeger Books

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