Analysis of The Refusal
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
MINE is a palace fair to see,
All hung with gold and silver things,
It is more glorious than a king's,
And crownèd queens might envy me.
Ah, no, I will not let you in!
Stay rather at the gates and weep
For all the splendour that I keep,
The treasures that you cannot win.
While you desire and I refuse,
For both the palace still is here--
Its turrets gold, its silver gear
Are yours to wish for--mine to use.
But if I let you in, I know
The spell would break, the palace fade,
And we stand, trembling and afraid,
Lost in the dark where chill winds blow.
| Scheme | ABBA CDDC XXXX EFFE |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
| Metre | 11010111 11110101 111100101 01111101 11111110 11010101 1101111 01011101 110100101 11010111 11011101 11111111 11111011 01110101 011100001 10011111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 562 |
| Words | 112 |
| Sentences | 6 |
| Stanzas | 4 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 16 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
| Words per line (avg) | 7 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 105 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
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"The Refusal" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9005/the-refusal>.
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