Analysis of English May

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)



WOULD God your health were as this month of May
Should be, were this not England,—and your face
Abroad, to give the gracious sunshine grace
And laugh beneath the budding hawthorn-spray.
But here the hedgerows pine from green to grey
While yet May's lyre is tuning, and her song
Is weak in shade that should in sun be strong;
And your pulse springs not to so faint a lay.
If in my life be breath of Italy,
Would God that I might yield it all to you!
So, when such grafted warmth had burgeoned through
The languor of your Maytime's hawthorn-tree,
My spirit at rest should walk unseen and see
The garland of your beauty bloom anew.


Scheme ABBAACCADEEDDE
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011111 1101110011 011101011 010101011 110111111 1111110001 1101110111 0111111101 1011111100 1111111111 1111011101 0111111 11011110101 0101110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 637
Words 120
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 495
Words per stanza (avg) 117
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
107

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. more…

All Dante Gabriel Rossetti poems | Dante Gabriel Rossetti Books

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