Analysis of Yesterday And To-Morrow
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
YESTERDAY I held your hand,
Reverently I pressed it,
And its gentle yieldingness
From my soul I blessed it.
But to-day I sit alone,
Sad and sore repining;
Must our gold forever know
Flames for the refining?
Yesterday I walked with you,
Could a day be sweeter?
Life was all a lyric song
Set to tricksy meter.
Ah, to-day is like a dirge,—
Place my arms around you,
Let me feel the same dear joy
As when first I found you.
Let me once retrace my steps,
From these roads unpleasant,
Let my heart and mind and soul
All ignore the present.
Yesterday the iron seared
And to-day means sorrow.
Pause, my soul, arise, arise,
Look where gleams the morrow.
Scheme | ABCBDEFEGHEHIGJGCKLKMFCF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101111 1000111 01101 111111 1111101 1011 11010101 110010 101111 101110 1110101 11110 1111101 111011 1110111 111111 1110111 111010 1110101 101010 100101 011110 1110101 111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 631 |
Words | 123 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 24 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 499 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 120 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 12, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 92 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Yesterday And To-Morrow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29016/yesterday-and-to-morrow>.
Discuss this Paul Laurence Dunbar poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In