Analysis of A Sketch
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1826 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) – 1887 (Shortlands, London)
'Emelie, that fayrer was to seene
Than is the lilye on hys stalke grene.....
Uprose the sun and uprose Emelie.'
DOST thou thus love me, O thou beautiful?
So beautiful, that by thy side I seem
Like a great ducky cloud beside a star:
Yet thou creep'st o'er its edges, and it rests
On its lone path, the slow deep-hearted cloud--
Then opes a rift and lets thee enter in;
And with thy beauty shining on its breast,
Feels no more its own blackness--thou art fair.
Dost thou thus love me, O thou all beloved,
In whose large store the very meanest coin
Would out-buy my whole wealth? Yet here thou comest
Like a kind heiress from her purple and down
Uprising, who for pity cannot sleep,
But goes forth to the stranger at her gate--
The beggared stranger at her beauteous gate--
And clothes and feeds; scarce blest till she has blest.
Dost thou thus love me, O thou pure of heart,
Whose very looks are prayers? What couldst thou see
In this forsaken pool by the yew-wood's side,
To sit down at its bank, and dip thy hand,
Saying, 'it is so clear!'--And lo, erelong
Its blackness caught the shimmer of they wings,
Its slimes slid downward from thy stainless palm,
Its depths grew still that there thy form might rise.
O beautiful! O well-beloved! O rich
In all that makes my need! I lay me down
I' the shadow of thy love, and feel no pain.
The cloud floats on, thee glittering on its breast,
The beggar wears thy purple as his own:
The noisome waves, made calm, creep to thy feet
Rejoicing that they yet can image thee,
And beyond thee, God's heaven, thick-sown with stars.
Scheme | AAB XXXXCADX XACAXEED XBXXXXXX XAADAXBX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 10011111 11011111 10101100 1111111100 1100111111 101110101 111110110011 1111011101 1101011100 0111010111 1111110111 1111111101 0111010101 1111111111 10110101001 0101110101 1111010101 01101011 0101111111 1111111111 1101111111 01010110111 1111110111 101111011 1101010111 1111011101 1111111111 1100110111 0111111111 1011110111 01111100111 0101110111 011111111 0101111101 00111101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,569 |
Words | 294 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 240 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:29 min read
- 62 Views
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"A Sketch" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7978/a-sketch>.
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