Analysis of Insufficiency

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)



When I attain to utter forth in verse
Some inward thought, my soul throbs audibly
Along my pulses, yearning to be free
And something farther, fuller, higher, rehearse
To the individual, true, and the universe,
In consummation of right harmony:
But, like a wind-exposed distorted tree,
We are blown against for ever by the curse
Which breathes through Nature. Oh, the world is weak !
The effluence of each is false to all,
And what we best conceive we fail to speak.
Wait, soul, until thine ashen garments fall,
And then resume thy broken strains, and seek
Fit peroration without let or thrall.


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 1101110101 1101111100 0111010111 01010101001 10010010010 001011100 1101010101 11101110101 1111010111 0100111111 0111011111 1101110101 0101110101 1101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 588
Words 104
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 469
Words per stanza (avg) 103
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
112

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. more…

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