Analysis of Tavern

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



I'll keep a little tavern
   Below the high hill's crest,
Wherein all grey-eyed people
   May set them down and rest.

There shall be plates a-plenty,
   And mugs to melt the chill
Of all the grey-eyed people
   Who happen up the hill.

There sound will sleep the traveller,
   And dream his journey's end,
But I will rouse at midnight
   The falling fire to tend.

Aye, 'tis a curious fancy—
   But all the good I know
Was taught me out of two grey eyes
   A long time ago.


Scheme XABA CDBD XEXE CFXF
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1101010 010111 0111110 111101 1111010 011101 1101110 110101 11110100 01111 111111 0101011 11010010 110111 11111111 01101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 466
Words 88
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 86
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 06, 2023

27 sec read
441

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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