Analysis of Lament

Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)



Listen, children:
Your father is dead.
From his old coats
I'll make you little jackets;
I'll make you little trousers
From his old pants.
There'll be in his pockets
Things he used to put there,
Keys and pennies
Covered with tobacco;
Dan shall have the pennies
To save in his bank;
Anne shall have the keys
To make a pretty noise with.
Life must go on,
And the dead be forgotten;
Life must go on,
Though good men die;
Anne, eat your breakfast;
Dan, take your medicine;
Life must go on;
I forget just why.


Scheme abcdefghijikilMaMnoaMn
Poetic Form
Metre 1010 11011 1111 1111010 1111010 1111 1010110 111111 1010 10101 111010 11011 11101 1101011 1111 0011010 1111 1111 11110 111100 1111 10111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 490
Words 97
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 22
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 387
Words per stanza (avg) 95
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

30 sec read
242

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism more…

All Edna St. Vincent Millay poems | Edna St. Vincent Millay Books

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    Quiz

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    »
    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A A turn
    B Enjambment
    C Line break
    D Dithyramb