Analysis of Heart And Mind

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell 1887 (Scarborough) – 1964 (Weedon Lois)



SAID the Lion to the Lioness-'When you are amber dust,-
No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun
(No liking but all lust)-
Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone,
The rippling of bright muscles like a sea,
Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws
Though the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-cold bone are one.'

Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time-
'The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun
Is greater than all gold, more powerful
Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes
Like all that grows or leaps...so is the heart

More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules
Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas:
But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind
Is but a foolish wind.'

Said the Sun to the Moon-'When you are but a lonely white crone,
And I, a dead King in my golden armour somewhere in a dark wood,
Remember only this of our hopeless love
That never till Time is done
Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one.'


Scheme ABACXXB XBXXX DDEE CXXBB
Poetic Form
Metre 1010101111101 1101010101101 110111 010101001010101 01001110101 010011111 1010111010011111 1010010010111 01110110101101 1101111100 101010101011001 111111101 110011111110 11011010101 101101011001 110101 101101111101011 0101101101010011 010101110101 1101111 1010101001010111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,007
Words 206
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 7, 5, 4, 5
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 38
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 197
Words per stanza (avg) 50
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:01 min read
138

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess. She never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful. Sitwell published poetry continuously from 1913, some of it abstract and set to music. With her dramatic style and exotic costumes, she was sometimes labelled a poseur, but her work was praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal. more…

All Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell poems | Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell Books

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