Analysis of The Lost Embassy
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
THE lilies lean to the white, white rose,
The sweet limes send to the blossomed trees,
Soft kisses borne by the golden bees--
And all the world is alive, awake,
And glad to the heart for the summer's sake.
From her tower window the Princess leant,
Where the white light butterflies came and went;
She dropped soft kisses by twos and threes:
'White butterflies mine, will you carry these
To my Prince in prison? for they, who knows,
May break the spell that has held him close
And wake him and win him to stand up free
And laugh--in the sun--with me!'
White lilies, gold in the golden sun,
White Princess, gold in your golden gown--
Far off lies the sad, enchanted town!
Bright wings, light wings, white wings that tire,
Though they carry the flower of the heart's desire--
Will you trust to these, too white, too slight
To bring back the fruit of heart's delight?
All round and about the spell-bound town
The ways are dusty, the woods are brown;
There are no green coverts, no welcoming flowers
For little weary butterfly wings,
No dew, no lilies, no glad live things.
'Neath the sky of steel and the brazen sun
White wings, kiss-laden, dropped one by one:
By twos and threes they dropped by the way,
And only one reached the grim, gray tower
Where, witched from his kingdom, the poor Prince lay--
One poor tired butterfly, smirched and gray
With the dust of the town and the weary way,
And it lit on the Prince's hand and died.
'Bright wings, light wings, white wings,' he cried
'You, only you, might have lived and borne
My prayer to my love in her tower forlorn,
And brought back the kiss that could set me free--
She might have broken the spell that lies
On my foolish heart and my foolish eyes--
But no live butterflies come my way!'
The winds are cold and the skies are gray,
And all the lilies died yesterday;
The Princess leans from her steel-wrought tower
To watch for her butterflies hour by hour.
Poor little Princess, you watch in vain!
Butterflies die where the green wood browns,
And kisses sent to enchanted towns
Never come home again.
Scheme | ABBCC XXBBAXDD EFFGGHH FFXIIEEJGJJJKKLLDMMJ JJGGXNNX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010110111 011110101 110110101 010110101 0110110101 10101001010 101110101 111101101 110111101 1110101111 110111111 0110111111 0100111 110100101 110101101 111010101 111111110 1110010101010 111111111 111011101 110010111 011100111 11111110010 11010101 111101111 1011100101 111101111 110111101 0101101110 1111100111 111010101 10110100101 0111010101 11111111 110111101 11111001001 0110111111 111100111 1110101101 11110111 011100111 01010110 0101101110 11101010110 110101101 10110111 010110101 101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,059 |
Words | 378 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 8, 7, 20, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 319 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 75 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 1:53 min read
- 69 Views
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"The Lost Embassy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8981/the-lost-embassy>.
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