Analysis of Before Time Altered Them
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
They were full of sadness at their parting.
That wasn't what they themselves wanted: it was circumstances.
The need to earn a living forced one of them
to go far away—New York or Canada.
The love they felt wasn't, of course, what it once had been;
the attraction between them had gradually diminished,
the attraction had diminished a great deal.
But to be separated, that wasn't what they themselves wanted.
It was circumstances. Or maybe Fate
appeared as an artist and parted them now,
before their feeling died out completely, before Time altered them:
the one seeming to remain for the other always what he was,
the exquisite young man of twenty-four.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJCKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011101110 11011011011100 01110101111 11101111100 0111101111111 001001111000010 00101010011 111100110110110 111001101 01111001011 0111011010011101 011010110101111 0100111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 652 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 13 |
Lines Amount | 13 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 521 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 110 Views
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"Before Time Altered Them" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7119/before-time-altered-them>.
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