Analysis of Song. To -- [Harriet]
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
Stern, stern is the voice of fate's fearful command,
When accents of horror it breathes in our ear,
Or compels us for aye bid adieu to the land,
Where exists that loved friend to our bosom so dear,
'Tis sterner than death o’er the shuddering wretch bending,
And in skeleton grasp his fell sceptre extending,
Like the heart-stricken deer to that loved covert wending,
Which never again to his eyes may appear--
And ah! he may envy the heart-stricken quarry,
Who bids to the friend of affection farewell,
He may envy the bosom so bleeding and gory,
He may envy the sound of the drear passing knell,
Not so deep is his grief on his death couch reposing,
When on the last vision his dim eyes are closing!
As the outcast whose love-raptured senses are losing,
The last tones of thy voice on the wild breeze that swell!
Those tones were so soft, and so sad, that ah! never,
Can the sound cease to vibrate on Memory’s ear,
In the stern wreck of Nature for ever and ever,
The remembrance must live of a friend so sincere.
Scheme | ABAC DDDC EFEF DDDF GBGC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (20%) |
Metre | 11101111001 110110110101 101111101101 1011111101011 1101110100110 0010011110010 1011011111010 11001111101 011110011010 1110110101 1110010110010 111001101101 11111111111 110110111110 10111110110 011111101111 110110111110 1011110111 0011110110010 001011101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,022 |
Words | 191 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 58 Views
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"Song. To -- [Harriet]" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29225/song.--to----%5Bharriet%5D>.
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