Analysis of The Beech Tree
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
MY beautiful beech, your smooth grey coat is trimmed
With letters. Once, each stood for all things dear
To foolish lovers, dead this many a year,
Whose lamp of lighted love so soon was dimmed.
You have seen them come and go,
And heard their kisses and vows
Under your boughs,
The pitiful vows they swore,
Have seen their poor tears flow,
Have seen them part; to meet, and to return, no more!
And in old winters, through your branches bare,
The north wind drove the blue home-scented smoke
That on the glowing Christmas hearth awoke
Where the old logs, with eager flicker and flare,
Sang their low crackling song
Of peace and of good will.
The old song is still,
The old voices have died away,
The hearth has been cold so long,
And the bright faces dimmed and covered up with clay.
And summer after summer wakes to glow
The ordered pleasance with the clipped box-hedge,
The drooping lilac by the old moat's edge,
The roses, that throw you kisses from below,
The orchard pink and white,
The sedge's whispered words,
The nesting birds,
All these return to revel round your feet.
And in the untroubled night
The nightingale still sings, the jasmine still is sweet.
My beautiful beech, I carve upon you here
The master-letter which begins her name
Through whom, to me, the royal summer came,
And nightingale and rose, and all things dear.
And, in some far-off time,
I shall come here, weary and old,
When the hearth in my heart is cold
And the birds that nest there flown;
I will remember this summer in all its prime
And say, 'There was a day--
Thank God, the Giver, an unforgotten day,
When I walked here, not alone,
--O God of pity and sorrow, not alone!'
Scheme | ABBACDDECE FGGFHIIJHJ CKKCLMMNLN XOOBPQQRPJJRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001111111 1101111111 11010111001 1111011111 1111101 0111001 1011 0100111 111111 111111010111 0011011101 0111011101 1101010101 10111101001 111101 110111 01111 01101101 0111111 001101010111 0101010111 010110111 010110111 01011110101 010101 01101 0101 1101110111 0000101 010011010111 11001110111 0101010101 1111010101 0100010111 001111 11111001 10101111 0011111 110101100111 011101 11010111 1111101 11110010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,619 |
Words | 304 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 13 |
Lines Amount | 43 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 322 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 75 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 161 Views
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"The Beech Tree" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8930/the-beech-tree>.
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