Analysis of At a Reading
Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)
The spare professor, grave and bald,
Began his paper. It was called,
I think, "A Brief Historic Glance
At Russia, Germany, and France."
A glance, but to my best belief
'T was almost anything but brief--
A wide survey, in which the earth
Was seen before mankind had birth;
Strange monsters basked them in the sun,
Behemoth, armored glyptodon,
And in the dawn's unpractised ray
The transient dodo winged its way;
Then, by degrees, through slit and slough,
We reached Berlin--I don't know how.
The good Professor's monotone
Had turned me into senseless stone
Instanter, but that near me sat
Hypatia in her new spring hat,
Blue-eyed, intent, with lips whose bloom
Lighted the heavy-curtained room.
Hypatia--ah, what lovely things
Are fashioned out of eighteen springs!
At first, in sums of this amount,
The eighteen winters do not count.
Just as my eyes were growing dim
With heaviness, I saw that slim,
Erect, elastic figure there,
Like a pond-lily taking air.
She looked so fresh, so wise, so neat,
So altogether crisp and sweet,
I quite forgot what Bismarck said,
And why the Emperor shook his head,
And how it was Von Moltke's frown
Cost France another frontier town.
The only facts I took away
From the Professor's theme that day
Were these: a forehead broad and low,
Such as antique sculptures show;
A chin to Greek perfection true;
Eyes of Astarte's tender blue;
A high complection without fleck
Or flaw, and curls about her neck.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGHIIJJKKLLMMNNOOPPQQRRFFSSTTUU |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010101 01110111 11010101 11010001 01111101 1111011 01010101 11011111 11011001 010101 000111 01010111 11011101 11011111 0101010 11101101 111111 100111 11011111 1001011 111101 11011011 11011101 00110111 11110101 111111 01010101 10110101 11111111 1010101 1101111 010100111 0111111 11010011 01011101 10010111 01010101 1101101 01110101 111101 011011 11010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,441 |
Words | 249 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 42 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,122 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 246 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 18, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 67 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"At a Reading" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36019/at-a-reading>.
Discuss this Thomas Bailey Aldrich poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In