Analysis of A Retrospect
Coventry Patmore 1823 (Woodford, London) – 1896 (Lymington)
I, trusting that the truly sweet
Would still be sweetly found the true,
Sang, darkling, taught by heavenly heat,
Songs which were wiser than I knew.
To the unintelligible dream
That melted like a gliding star,
I said: ‘We part to meet, fair Gleam!
You are eternal, for you are.’
To Love's strange riddle, fiery writ
In flesh and spirit of all create,
‘Mocker,’ I said, ‘of mortal wit,
Me you shall not mock. I can wait.’
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Traditional rhyme |
Metre | 11010101 11110101 11111001 11010111 10010001 11010101 11111111 11010111 111101001 010101101 1111101 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 429 |
Words | 82 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 12 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 318 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 77 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 24 sec read
- 410 Views
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"A Retrospect" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7333/a-retrospect>.
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