Analysis of A Life's Story
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
THE morning broke in a pearly haze,
Then the east grew duskly red:
'Oh, my only day, oh, my day of days,
To-day he will come,' I said.
As the sun climbed up in the clearer sky,
The mists fell down at his feet;
'There is sunshine too in my heart,' said I,
'For to-day is the day we meet;
Perhaps even now he is journeying fast--
Perhaps he is almost here.'
And my heart leaped up at each foot that passed,
With the thought that he might be near.
In my garden the fairest flowers that grew
I plucked for him, sweet, dew-wet,
And held them ready, the whole day through,
To gladden him when we met.
The sun shone warm on the longing earth,
That thrilled to his fervent kiss;
But what to me was the sun's smile worth,
When I longed for that smile of his?
The hours in their flight seemed strangely slow
For the sake of the hour to be;
'Go swiftly now--and more slowly go
When he shall be here with me.'
But the level light of late afternoon
Fell cold on me, still alone;
My flowers were dying, gathered too soon,
And my whole day's work undone.
With empty heart and unsatisfied
I turned from the red sunset:
'Short time for his coming is left,' I cried,
'It shall not be evening yet.'
But the sky grows pale, and a weak wind wakes,
And long flights of birds go home,
And slowly and surely the day's spell breaks,
And I know that he will not come.
Perhaps he has never turned my way,
Nor known how my heart would wait;
Perhaps he has sought me the whole long day,
And has failed at my very gate;
Perhaps all these hours of increasing pain
Have been only a dream of a day,
And after the night I shall wake again,
And 'To-day he comes,' I shall say.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EXEX FGFG HXHX IJIJ KXKX LGLG MXMX NONO XNXN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (64%) |
Metre | 010100101 101111 1110111111 1111111 1011100101 0111111 111101111 11110111 01101111001 011111 0111111111 10111111 01100101011 1111111 011100111 1101111 011110101 1111101 111110111 11111111 0100111101 101101011 110101101 1111111 101011101 1111101 1100101011 0111101 11010010 111011 1111101111 1111101 1011100111 0111111 0100100111 01111111 011110111 1111111 0111110111 01111101 01111010101 111001101 0100111101 01111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,649 |
Words | 332 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 113 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 75 Views
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"A Life's Story" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8762/a-life%27s-story>.
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