Analysis of The Letter
Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)
EDWARD ROWLAND SILL, DIED FEBRUARY 27, 1887
I held his letter in my hand,
And even while I read
The lightning flashed across the land
The word that he was dead.
How strange it seemed! His living voice
Was speaking from the page
Those courteous phrases, tersely choice,
Light-hearted, witty, sage.
I wondered what it was that died!
The man himself was here,
His modesty, his scholar's pride,
His soul serene and clear.
These neither death nor time shall dim,
Still this sad thing must be--
Henceforth I may not speak to him,
Though he can speak to me!
Scheme | A BCBC DEDE FXFX GAGA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101011100 11110011 010111 01010101 011111 11111101 110101 110010101 110101 11011111 010111 11001101 110101 11011111 111111 11111111 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 554 |
Words | 101 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 86 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 20 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 18, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 133 Views
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"The Letter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36080/the-letter>.
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