Analysis of The Home-Coming

Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)



This was our house. To this we came
Lighted by love with torch aflame,
And in this chamber, door locked fast,
I held you to my heart at last.

This was our house. In this we knew
The worst that Time and Fate can do.
You left the room bare, wide the door;
You did not love me any more.

Where once the kind warm curtain hung
The spider's ghostly cloth is flung;
The beetle and the woodlouse creep
Where once I loved your lovely sleep.

Yet so the vanished spell endures,
That this, our house, still, still is yours.
Here, spite of all these years apart,
I still can hold you to my heart!


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 111011111 10111101 00110111 11111111 111010111 01110111 11011101 11111101 11011101 0110111 0100011 11111101 11010101 111011111 11111101 11111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 576
Words 117
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
96

Edith Nesbit

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 books of children's literature. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later affiliated to the Labour Party. more…

All Edith Nesbit poems | Edith Nesbit Books

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