Analysis of The Only Day In Existence
William Taylor Collins 1721 (Sussex) – 1759 (Sussex)
The early sun is so pale and shadowy,
I could be looking up at a ghost
in the shape of a window,
a tall, rectangular spirit
looking down at me in bed,
about to demand that I avenge
the murder of my father.
But the morning light is only the first line
in the play of this day-
the only day in existence-
the opening chord of its long song,
or think of what is permeating
the thin bedroom curtains
as the beginning of a lecture
I will listen to until it is dark,
a curious student in a V-neck sweater,
angled into the wooden chair of his life,
ready with notebook and a chewed-up pencil,
quiet as a goldfish in winter,
serious as a compass at sea,
eager to absorb whatever lesson
this damp, overcast Tuesday
has to teach me,
here in the spacious classroom of the world
with its long walls of glass,
its heavy, low-hung ceiling.
Scheme | A X X X X X B X X X X C X B X B X X B A X A A X X C |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011110100 111101101 0011010 01010010 1011101 011011101 0101110 10101110011 001111 01010010 010011111 11111100 01110 100101010 1110101111 010010001110 10010101111 1011001110 10101010 100101011 101011010 111010 1111 100101101 111111 1101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 808 |
Words | 161 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 26 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 25 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 6 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 99 Views
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