Analysis of To A Dead Lover
Louise Bogan 1897 (Livermore Falls) – 1970 (New York City)
The dark is thrown
Back from the brightness, like hair
Cast over a shoulder.
I am alone,
Four years older;
Like the chairs and the walls
Which I once watched brighten
With you beside me. I was to waken
Never like this, whatever came or was taken.
The stalk grows, the year beats on the wind.
Apples come, and the month for their fall.
The bark spreads, the roots tighten.
Though today be the last
Or tomorrow all,
You will not mind.
That I may not remember
Does not matter.
I shall not be with you again.
What we knew, even now
Must scatter
And be ruined, and blow
Like dust in the rain.
You have been dead a long season
And have less than desire
Who were lover with lover;
And I have life—that old reason
To wait for what comes,
To leave what is over.
Scheme | AXBA BXCCC DECXED BBXXBXX CBBCXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111 1101011 110010 1101 1110 101001 111110 1101111110 10111011110 011011101 101001111 0110110 101101 1011 1111 1111010 1110 11111101 111101 110 011001 11001 11110110 0111010 1010110 01111110 11111 111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 762 |
Words | 149 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 5, 6, 7, 6 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 116 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 23, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 80 Views
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"To A Dead Lover" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26148/to-a-dead-lover>.
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