Analysis of Non Dolet!
Edith Wharton 1862 (New York City) – 1937 (Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt)
Age after age the fruit of knowledge falls
To ashes on men’s lips;
Love fails, faith sickens, like a dying tree
Life sheds its dreams that no new spring recalls;
The longed-for ships
Come empty home or founder on the deep,
And eyes first lose their tears and then their sleep.
So weary a world it lies, forlorn of day,
And yet not wholly dark,
Since evermore some soul that missed the mark
Calls back to those agrope
In the mad maze of hope,
“Courage, my brothers—I have found the way!”
The day is lost? What then?
What though the straggling rear-guard of the fight
Be whelmed in fear and night,
And the flying scouts proclaim
That death has gripped the van—
Ever the heart of man
Cheers on the hearts of men!
“It hurts not!” dying cried the Roman wife;
And one by one
The leaders in the strife
Fall on the blade of failure and exclaim:
“The day is won!”
Scheme | ABXABCC DEECXD FGGHIIF JKJHK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011101 110111 111110101 111111111 0111 1101110101 0111110111 11001110111 011101 110111101 11111 001111 1011011101 011111 110111101 110101 0010101 111101 100111 110111 1111010101 0111 010001 1101110001 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 856 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 6, 7, 5 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 166 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 64 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Non Dolet!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9087/non-dolet%21>.
Discuss this Edith Wharton poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In