Analysis of On Reading William Watson's Sonnet Entitled The Purple East

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



Restless the Northern Bear amid his snows
Crouched by the Neva; menacing is France,
That sees the shadow of the Uhlan's lance
On her clipped borders; struggling in the throes
Of wanton war lies Spain, and deathward goes.
And thou, O England, how the time's mischance
Hath fettered thee, that with averted glance
Thou standest, marble to Armenia's woes!
If 'twas thy haughty Dauther of the West
That stayed thy hand,, a word had driven away
Her sudden ire, and brought her to thy breast!
Thy blood makes quick her pulses, and some day,
Not now, yet some day, at thy soft behest
She by thy side shall hold the world at bay.


Scheme ABBAAABACDCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 1001010111 1101010011 11011011 10110100001 110111011 011101011 1101110101 1110101001 111101101 11110111001 0101010111 1111010011 1111111101 1111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 629
Words 115
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 486
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
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Thomas Bailey Aldrich

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

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    Sonnets were first introduced to England by?
    A William Wordsworth
    B Petrarch
    C Sir Thomas Wyatt
    D William Shakespeare