Analysis of Surprise
Dorothy Parker 1893 (Long Branch) – 1967 (New York City)
My heart went fluttering with fear
Lest you should go, and leave me here
To beat my breast and rock my head
And stretch me sleepless on my bed.
Ah, clear they see and true they say
That one shall weep, and one shall stray
For such is Love's unvarying law....
I never thought, I never saw
That I should be the first to go;
How pleasant that it happened so!
| Scheme | ABCCDDEEFF |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) Tetractys (20%) |
| Metre | 11110011 11110111 11110111 01110111 11110111 11110111 111111 11011101 11110111 11011101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 354 |
| Words | 73 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 10 |
| Lines Amount | 10 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
| Words per line (avg) | 7 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 273 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 22 sec read
- 422 Views
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"Surprise" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8240/surprise>.
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