Analysis of London To Folkestone (Half-Past One To Half-Past Five)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
A constant keeping-past of shaken trees,
And a bewildered glitter of loose road;
Banks of bright growth, with single blades atop
Against white sky; and wires—a constant chain—
That seem to draw the clouds along with them
(Things which one stoops against the light to see
Through the low window; shaking by at rest,
Or fierce like water as the swiftness grows);
And, seen through fences or a bridge far off,
Trees that in moving keep their intervals
Still one 'twixt bar and bar; and then at times
Long reaches of green level, where one cow,
Feeding among her fellows that feed on,
Lifts her slow neck, and gazes for the sound.
There are six of us: I that write away;
Hunt reads Dumas, hard-lipped, with heavy jowl
And brows hung low, and the long ends of hair
Standing out limp. A grazier at one end
(Thank luck not my end!) has blocked out the air,
And sits in heavy consciousness of guilt.
The poor young muff who's face to face with me
Is pitiful in loose collar and black tie,
His latchet-button shaking as we go.
There are flowers by me, half upon my knees,
Owned by a dame who's fair in soul, no doubt:
The wind that beats among us carries off
Their scent, but still I have them for my eye.
Fields mown in ridges; and close garden-crops
Of the earth's increase; and a constant sky
Still with clear trees that let you see the wind;
And snatches of the engine-smoke, by fits
Tossed to the wind against the landscape, where
Rooks stooping heave their wings upon the day.
Brick walls we pass between, passed so at once
That for the suddenness I cannot know
Or what, or where begun, or where at end.
Sometimes a Station in grey quiet; whence,
With a short gathered champing of pent sound,
We are let out upon the air again.
Now nearly darkness; knees and arms and sides
Feel the least touch, and close about the face
A wind of noise that is along like God.
Pauses of water soon, at intervals,
That has the sky in it;—the reflexes
O' the trees move towards the bank as we go by,
Leaving the water's surface plain. I now
Lie back and close my eyes a space; for they
Smart from the open forwardness of thought
Fronting the wind——
——I did not scribble more,
Be certain, after this; but yawned, and read,
And nearly dozed a little, I believe;
Till, stretching up against the carriage-back,
I was roused altogether, and looked out
To where, upon the desolate verge of light,
Yearned, pale and vast, the iron-coloured sea.
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101011101 0001010111 1111110101 01110100101 1111010111 1111010111 1011010111 1111010101 0111010111 1101011100 1111010111 1101110111 1001010111 1011010101 1111111101 1110111101 0111001111 10110100111 1111111101 0101010011 0111111111 11000110011 111010111 11101110111 1101110111 0111011101 1111111111 1101001101 1010100101 1111111101 0101010111 110101011 1101110101 1111011111 1101001101 1111011111 0101001101 101101111 1111010101 1101010101 1011010101 0111110111 1011011100 1101010100 101101011111 1001010111 1101110111 11010111 1001 111101 1101011101 0101010101 1101010101 111010011 11010100111 1101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,438 |
Words | 449 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 56 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,878 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 445 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 2:16 min read
- 72 Views
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"London To Folkestone (Half-Past One To Half-Past Five)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7564/london-to-folkestone-%28half-past-one-to-half-past-five%29>.
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