Analysis of Sonnet LXXXI: Memorial Thresholds

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



What place so strange,—though unrevealèd snow
With unimaginable fires arise
At the earth's end,—what passion of surprise
Like frost-bound fire-girt scenes of long ago?
Lo! this is none but I this hour; and lo!
This is the very place which to mine eyes
Those mortal hours in vain immortalize,
'Mid hurrying crowds, with what alone I know.
City, of thine a single simple door,
By some new Power reduplicate, must be
Even yet my life-porch in eternity,
Even with one presence filled, as once of yore:
Or mocking winds whirl round a chaff-strown floor
Thee and thy years and these my words and me.


Scheme ABBAABBACDDCCD
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111 1010001001 1011110101 11110111101 11111111001 1101011111 11010010100 11001110111 1011010101 11110111 10111100100 10111011111 1101110111 1011011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 593
Words 108
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 465
Words per stanza (avg) 104
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
84

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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