Analysis of Four in the Morning
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell 1887 (Scarborough) – 1964 (Weedon Lois)
Cried the navy-blue ghost
Of Mr. Belaker
The allegro Negro cocktail-shaker,
"Why did the cock crow,
Why am I lost,
Down the endless road to Infinity toss'd?
The tropical leaves are whispering white
As water; I race the wind in my flight.
The white lace houses are carried away
By the tide; far out they float and sway.
White is the nursemaid on the parade.
Is she real, as she flirts with me unafraid?
I raced through the leaves as white as water...
Ghostly, flowed over the nursemaid, caught her,
Left her...edging the far-off sand
Is the foam of the sirens' Metropole and Grand;
And along the parade I am blown and lost,
Down the endless road to Infinity toss'd.
The guinea-fowl-plumaged houses sleep...
On one, I saw the lone grass weep,
Where only the whimpering greyhound wind
Chased me, raced me, for what it could find."
And there in the black and furry boughs
How slowly, coldly, old Time grows,
Where the pigeons smelling of gingerbread,
And the spectacled owls so deeply read,
And the sweet ring-doves of curded milk
Watch the Infanta's gown of silk
In the ghost-room tall where the governante
Gesticulates lente and walks andante.
'Madam, Princesses must be obedient;
For a medicine now becomes expedient--
Of five ingredients--a diapente,
Said the governante, fading lente...
In at the window then looked he,
The navy-blue ghost of Mr. Belaker,
The allegro Negro cocktail-shaker--
And his flattened face like the moon saw she--
Rhinoceros-black (a flowing sea!).
Scheme | abBbcCddeeffbbggcChhiijkllmmaennaaobBoo |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101011 1101 00110110 11011 1111 10101101001 0100111001 1101101011 0111011001 101111101 11011001 1111111101 1110111110 101100110 110111 1011010101 00100111101 10101101001 01011101 11110111 110010011 111111111 010010101 11010111 101010110 00111101 00111111 101111 00111101 1101010 10100110100 101001010100 11010001 101101 01010111 010111101 00110110 0110110111 010010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,444 |
Words | 254 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 39 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,149 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 249 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 49 Views
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"Four in the Morning" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7414/four-in-the-morning>.
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