Analysis of Love

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



A life was mine full of the close concern
Of many-voiced affairs. The world sped fast;
Behind me, ever rolled a pregnant past.
A present came equipped with lore to learn.
Art, science, letters, in their turn,
Each one allured me with its treasures vast;
And I staked all for wisdom, till at last
Thou cam'st and taught my soul anew to yearn.
I had not dreamed that I could turn away
From all that men with brush and pen had wrought;
But ever since that memorable day
When to my heart the truth of love was brought,
I have been wholly yielded to its sway,
And had no room for any other thought.


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 0111110101 1101010111 0111010101 0101011111 11010011 1101111101 0111110111 11101110111 1111111101 1111110111 1101110001 1111011111 1111010111 0111110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 588
Words 116
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 462
Words per stanza (avg) 114
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
136

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

All Paul Laurence Dunbar poems | Paul Laurence Dunbar Books

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