Analysis of Andromeda

Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)



The smooth-worn coin and threadbare classic phrase
Of Grecian myths that did beguile my youth,
Beguile me not as in the olden days:
I think more grief and beauty dwell with truth.
Andromeda, in fetters by the sea,
Star-pale with anguish till young Perseus came,
Less moves me with her suffering than she,
The slim girl figure fettered to dark shame,
That nightly haunts the park, there, like a shade,
Trailing her wretchedness from street to street.
See where she passes -- neither wife nor maid;
How all mere fiction crumbles at her feet!
Here is woe's self, and not the mask of woe:
A legend's shadow shall not move you so!


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Poetic Form Shakespearean sonnet 
Metre 011101101 1101110111 0111100101 1111010111 0100010101 11110111001 1111010011 0111010111 1101011101 10011111 1111010111 1111010101 1111010111 01111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 633
Words 114
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 491
Words per stanza (avg) 112
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
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Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich was a poet novelist traveler and editor more…

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