Analysis of The Bitter Herb

Jeanne Robert Foster 1879 (Johnsburg) – 1970



O bitter herb, Forgetfulness,
I search for you in vain;
You are the only growing thing
Can take away my pain.

When I was young, this bitter herb
Grew wild on every hill;
I should have plucked a store of it,
And kept it by me still.

I hunt through all the meadows
Where once I wandered free,
But the rare herb, Forgetfulness,
It hides away from me.

O bitter herb, Forgetfulness,
Where is your drowsy breath?
Oh, can it be your seed has blown
Far as the Vales of Death?


Scheme Abxb xcxc adad Aexe
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11011 111101 11010101 110111 11111101 1111001 11110111 011111 111101 111101 10111 110111 11011 111101 11111111 110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 475
Words 93
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 90
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
395

Jeanne Robert Foster

Jeanne Robert Foster was an American poet from the Adirondack Mountains. more…

All Jeanne Robert Foster poems | Jeanne Robert Foster Books

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