Analysis of A Letter
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)
Dear brother, would you know the life,
Please God, that I would lead?
On the first wheels that quit this weary town
Over yon western bridges I would ride
And with a cheerful benison forsake
Each street and spire and roof, incontinent.
Then would I seek where God might guide my steps,
Deep in a woodland tract, a sunny farm,
Amid the mountain counties, Hants, Franklin, Berks,
Where down the rock ravine a river roars,
Even from a brook, and where old woods
Not tamed and cleared cumber the ground
With their centennial wrecks.
Find me a slope where I can feel the sun
And mark the rising of the early stars.
There will I bring my books,--my household gods,
The reliquaries of my dead saint, and dwell
In the sweet odor of her memory.
Then in the uncouth solitude unlock
My stock of art, plant dials in the grass,
Hang in the air a bright thermometer
And aim a telescope at the inviolate sun.
CHARDON ST., BOSTON, 1831.
Scheme | XXXXXXAXAXXXXBXXXXXXXB B |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 111111 1011111101 1011010111 01010101 1101010100 1111111111 100110101 01010101101 1101010101 101010111 11011001 1101001 1101111101 0101010101 111111111 01111101 0011010100 100111001 1111110001 1001010100 010101001001 1110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 900 |
Words | 171 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 22, 1 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 361 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 85 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 24 Views
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"A Letter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56423/a-letter>.
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