Analysis of Song. Despair

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



Ask not the pallid stranger's woe,
With beating heart and throbbing breast,
Whose step is faltering, weak, and slow,
As though the body needed rest.--

Whose 'wildered eye no object meets,
Nor cares to ken a friendly glance,
With silent grief his bosom beats,--
Now fixed, as in a deathlike trance.

Who looks around with fearful eye,
And shuns all converse with man kind,
As though some one his griefs might spy,
And soothe them with a kindred mind.

A friend or foe to him the same,
He looks on each with equal eye;
The difference lies but in the name,
To none for comfort can he fly.--

'Twas deep despair, and sorrow’s trace,
To him too keenly given,
Whose memory, time could not efface--
His peace was lodged in Heaven.--

He looks on all this world bestows,
The pride and pomp of power,
As trifles best for pageant shows
Which vanish in an hour.

When torn is dear affection's tie,
Sinks the soft heart full low;
It leaves without a parting sigh,
All that these realms bestow.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GEGE HIHI JKJK EAEA
Poetic Form Pantoum 
Quatrain 
Metre 11010101 11010101 111100101 11010101 1111101 11110101 11011101 1110011 11011101 01110111 11111111 01110101 01111101 11111101 010011001 11110111 11010101 1111010 110011101 1111010 11111101 0101110 11011101 1100110 111111 101111 11010101 111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 973
Words 186
Sentences 9
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 108
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

56 sec read
61

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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