Analysis of The Kiss
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
What smouldering senses in death's sick delay
Or seizure of malign vicissitude
Can rob this body of honour, or denude
This soul of wedding-raiment worn to-day?
For lo! even now my lady's lips did play
With these my lips such consonant interlude
As laurelled Orpheus longed for when he wooed
The half-drawn hungering face with that last lay.
I was a child beneath her touch, -- a man
When breast to breast we clung, even I and she, --
A spirit when her spirit looked through me, --
A god when all our life-breath met to fan
Our life-blood, till love's emulous ardours ran,
Fire within fire, desire in deity.
| Scheme | ABBAABBA CDDCCD |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Petrarchan sonnet (79%) |
| Metre | 111001101 110101100 1111011101 111101111 11101110111 1111110010 1110011111 01110011111 1101010101 11111110101 0101010111 01111011111 101111111 1001100100100 |
| Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
| Characters | 613 |
| Words | 112 |
| Sentences | 5 |
| Stanzas | 2 |
| Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 236 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 34 sec read
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"The Kiss" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7748/the-kiss>.
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