Analysis of The Keys of Morning
Walter de la Mare 1873 (Charlton, London) – 1956 (Twickenham)
While at her bedroom window once,
Learning her task for school,
Little Louisa lonely sat
In the morning clear and cool,
She slanted her small bead-brown eyes
Across the empty street,
And saw Death softly watching her
In the sunshine pale and sweet.
His was a long lean sallow face;
He sat with half-shut eyes,
Like a old sailor in a ship
Becalmed 'neath tropic skies.
Beside him in the dust he had set
His staff and shady hat;
These, peeping small, Louisa saw
Quite clearly where she sat -
The thinness of his coal-black locks,
His hands so long and lean
They scarcely seemed to grasp at all
The keys that hung between:
Both were of gold, but one was small,
And with this last did he
Wag in the air, as if to say,
"Come hither, child, to me!"
Louisa laid her lesson book
On the cold window-sill;
And in the sleepy sunshine house
Went softly down, until
She stood in the half-opened door,
And peeped. But strange to say
Where Death just now had sunning sat
Only a shadow lay:
Just the tall chimney's round-topped cowl,
And the small sun behind,
Had with its shadow in the dust
Called sleepy Death to mind.
But most she thought how strange it was
Two keys that he should bear,
And that, when beckoning, he should wag
The littlest in the air.
Scheme | XABACDXD XCXCXBXBXEFEFGHG XIXIXHBHXJXJXKXK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 1101101 100111 10010101 0010101 11001111 010101 01110100 001101 1101111 111111 10110001 011101 011001111 110101 11010101 110111 01011111 111101 11011111 011101 10111111 011111 10011111 110111 01010101 101101 0001011 110101 11001101 011111 11111101 10011 1011111 001101 1111001 110111 11111111 111111 011100111 0100001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,210 |
Words | 235 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 16, 16 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 322 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 77 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 89 Views
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