Analysis of The Onset
Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)
Always the same, when on a fated night
At last the gathered snow lets down as white
As may be in dark woods, and with a song
It shall not make again all winter long
Of hissing on the yet uncovered ground,
I almost stumble looking up and round,
As one who overtaken by the end
Gives up his errand, and lets death descend
Upon him where he is, with nothing done
To evil, no important triumph won,
More than if life had never been begun.
Yet all the precedent is on my side:
I know that winter death has never tried
The earth but it has failed: the snow may heap
In long storms an undrifted four feet deep
As measured against maple, birch and oak,
It cannot check the peeper's silver croak;
And I shall see the snow all go downhill
In water of a slender April rill
That flashes tail through last year's withered brake
And dead weeds, like a disappearing snake.
Nothing will be left white but here a birch,
And there a clump of houses with a church.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEE FFGGHHIIJJKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101110101 1101011111 1110110101 1111011101 1101010101 111010101 111100101 1111001101 0111111101 1101010101 1111110101 1101001111 1111011101 0111110111 01111111 1100110101 110101101 0111011111 0101010101 1101111101 011100101 1011111101 0101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 936 |
Words | 183 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 12 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 372 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 92 |
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"The Onset" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/47728/the-onset>.
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