Analysis of Beechwoods at Knole

Victoria Sackville-West 1862 (Paris) – 1936 (Roedean, Sussex)



How do I love you, beech-trees, in the autumn,
Your stone-grey columns a cathedral nave
Processional above the earth's brown glory!  

I was a child, and I loved the knurly tangle
Of roots that coiled above a scarp like serpents,
Where I might hide my treasure with the squirrels.

I was a child, and splashed my way in laughter
Through drifts of leaves, where underfoot the beech-nuts
Split with crisp crackle to my great rejoicing.   

Red are the beechen slopes below Shock Tavern,
Red is the bracken on the sandy Furze-field,
Red are the stags and hinds by Bo-Pit Meadows,

The rutting stags that nightly through the beechwoods
Bell out their challenge, carrying their antlers
Proudly beneath the antlered autumn branches.

I was a child, and heard the red deer's challenge
Prowling and belling underneath my window,
Never a cry so haughty or so mournful.


Scheme XXX ABX XXX XXX BXX XXA
Poetic Form
Metre 11111110010 1111000101 01000101110 11010110110 11110101110 11111101010 11010111010 1111101011 11110111010 1101101110 11010101011 1101011111 011110101 11110100110 10010101010 11010101110 1001001110 10011101110
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 855
Words 147
Sentences 6
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 38
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 113
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
47

Victoria Sackville-West

Victoria Josefa Dolores Catalina Sackville-West, Lady Sackville married her first cousin Lionel Edward Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville. Their daughter was the writer, poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West. more…

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