Analysis of A Birthday
Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)
The love within my heart that dwells
Knows nought of days or hours;
I hear thee in the Christmas bells,
I feel thee in the vernal showers;
And thy breath is blent with the wandering scent
Of the summer fruits and flowers.
And yet this morn my blood is stirred
With more than wonted glow;
Thy absent voice is strangely heard,
Thy spells upon me stronger grow;
And my spirit sips from unseen lips
That can be but thine, I know.
For thou wast born upon this day,
When I was but a child,
Ere winter frosts were ta'en away,
Ere primroses peeped out and smiled;
Ere the snows were reft from the sheltering cleft,
And the winds were high and wild.
Thus early unto me wast thou
An earnest of the spring;
Of happy birds upon the bough,
And sweet trees blossoming;
Of all that is fair upon earth, in air,
And the streams that bound and sing.
I wonder what the world was like
Before thou didst appear-
Did young lambs skip o'er mound and dyke?
Did throstles warble loud and clear?
And were sea and sky as deep and high
As they are now thou art here?
It were a dreary world indeed
To me, wert thou away;
The night no tumults sweet would breed,
No tranquil dalliance the day;
And though earth should fling all that Fame can bring
At my feet, I would not stay.
So, though sore-severed still we be,
Here, helpful one, remain!
Through travels long a bourne to me,
A crowning joy 'mid crushing pain;
An abiding star when the storm-waves jar,
And a rainbow 'mid the rain.
And fear not, sweet, but love like ours
Will keep us ever young:
No prey to the corroding hours,
No feast for the malignant tongue,
But as firm and fond in the years beyond
As when first we clasped and clung.
Age cannot touch such charms as thine;
My heart defies the sun:
Both shall but glow yet more divine,
His course more oft as he may run:
Till we spurn the earth for that second birth,
When we twain shall be only one.
Scheme | ABABXB CDCDXD EFEFXF GHGHXH IJIJXX KEKEHE LMLMXM BNBNXN OPOPXP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011111 1111110 11100101 111001010 01111101001 10101010 01111111 11111 11011101 11011101 011011011 1111111 11110111 111101 110101101 1101101 10101101001 0010101 11010111 110101 11010101 011100 1111101101 0011101 11010111 011101 111110101 1110101 001011101 1111111 10010101 111101 0111111 11010001 0111111111 1111111 11110111 110101 11010111 01011101 1010110111 001101 011111110 111101 1110110 11100101 1110100101 1111101 11011111 110101 11111101 11111111 1110111101 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,833 |
Words | 362 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 162 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 94 Views
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"A Birthday" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/623/a-birthday>.
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