Analysis of The Poet And The Bird

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)



Said a people to a poet---' Go out from among us straightway!
     While we are thinking earthly things, thou singest of divine.
There's a little fair brown nightingale, who, sitting in the gateways
     Makes fitter music to our ears than any song of thine!'

The poet went out weeping---the nightingale ceased chanting;
     'Now, wherefore, O thou nightingale, is all thy sweetness done?'
I cannot sing my earthly things, the heavenly poet wanting,
     Whose highest harmony includes the lowest under sun.'

The poet went out weeping,---and died abroad, bereft there---
     The bird flew to his grave and died, amid a thousand wails:---
And, when I last came by the place, I swear the music left there
     Was only of the poet's song, and not the nightingale's.


Scheme XABA CDCD EXEB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 101010101110111 1111010111101 101011100110001 110101101110111 01011100100110 1111100111101 1101110101001010 11010001010101 01011100101011 01111101010101 011111011101011 110101010101
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 762
Words 132
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 47
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 189
Words per stanza (avg) 42
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

39 sec read
152

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. more…

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