Analysis of Sonnet LXXXVI: Lost Days
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
The lost days of my life until to-day,
What were they, could I see them on the street
Lie as they fell? Would they be ears of wheat
Sown once for food but trodden into clay?
Or golden coins squandered and still to pay?
Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet?
Or such spilt water as in dreams must cheat
The undying throats of Hell, athirst alway?
I do not see them here; but after death
God knows I know the faces I shall see,
Each one a murdered self, with low last breath.
“I am thyself,—what hast thou done to me?”
“And I—and I—thyself,” (lo! each one saith,)
“And thou thyself to all eternity!”
Scheme | ABBAABBCDEDEDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111110111 1011111101 1111111111 1111110011 1101100111 11111000101 1111010111 001011111 1111111101 1111010111 1101011111 111111111 010111111 011110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 615 |
Words | 123 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 457 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 116 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 89 Views
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"Sonnet LXXXVI: Lost Days" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7654/sonnet-lxxxvi%3A--lost-days>.
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