Analysis of The Despot
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
1 The garden mould was damp and chill,
2 Winter had had his brutal will
3 Since over all the year's content
4 His devastating legions went.
5 Then Spring's bright banners came: there woke
6 Millions of little growing folk
7 Who thrilled to know the winter done,
8 Gave thanks, and strove towards the sun.
9 Not so the elect; reserved, and slow
10 To trust a stranger-sun and grow,
11 They hesitated, cowered and hid
12 Waiting to see what others did.
13 Yet even they, a little, grew,
14 Put out prim leaves to day and dew,
15 And lifted level formal heads
16 In their appointed garden beds.
17 The gardener came: he coldly loved
18 The flowers that lived as he approved,
19 That duly, decorously grew
20 As he, the despot, meant them to.
21 He saw the wildlings flower more brave
22 And bright than any cultured slave;
23 Yet, since he had not set them there,
24 He hated them for being fair.
25 So he uprooted, one by one
26 The free things that had loved the sun,
27 The happy, eager, fruitful seeds
28 That had not known that they were weeds.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH XXGG IIJJ DDKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 01011101 10111101 11010110 1100101 11110111 10110101 11110101 11010101 110010101 11010101 1100101 10111101 11010101 11111101 01010101 01010101 010011101 010111101 11011 11010111 11011011 01110101 11111111 11011101 11010111 01111101 01010101 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,107 |
Words | 205 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 116 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 211 Views
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