Analysis of De Erotio Puella

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



THIS girl was sweeter than the song of swans,
And daintier than the lamb upon the lawns
Or Curine oyster.  She, the flower of girls,
Outshone the light of Erythraean pearls;
The teeth of India that with polish glow,
The untouched lilies or the morning snow.
Her tresses did gold-dust outshine
And fair hair of women of the Rhine.
Compared to her the peacock seemed not fair,
The squirrel lively, or the phoenix rare;
Her on whose pyre the smoke still hovering waits;
Her whom the greedy and unequal fates
On the sixth dawning of her natal day,
My child-love and my playmate - snatcht away.


Scheme ABCCDDEEFFGGHH
Poetic Form
Metre 1111010111 011010101 1110101011 0101111 01110011101 0011010101 0101111 011110101 011001111 0101010101 011100111001 0101000101 1011010101 111011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 584
Words 108
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 466
Words per stanza (avg) 107
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
109

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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