Analysis of To Italy. (From Filicaja)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



Italy! Italy! thou who'rt doomed to wear
The fatal gift of beauty and possess
The dower funest of infinite wretchedness
Written upon thy forehead by despair;
Ah! would that thou wert stronger or less fair,
That they might fear thee more or love thee less,
Who in the splendour of thy loveliness
Seem wasting, yet to mortal combat dare!
Then from the Alps I should not see descending
Such torrents of armed men, nor Gallic horde
Drinking the wave of Po, distained with gore,
Nor should I see thee girded with a sword
Not thine, and with the stranger's arm contending,
Victor or vanquished, slave for evermore.


Scheme ABBAABBACDEDCE
Poetic Form
Metre 10010011111 0101110001 01111001 1001110101 1111110111 1111111111 1001111 1101110101 11011111010 1101111101 100111111 111111101 11010101010 101101110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 603
Words 109
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 485
Words per stanza (avg) 107
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
83

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

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