Analysis of A Triad

Christina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)



Three sang of love together: one with lips
   Crimson, with cheeks and bosom in a glow,
Flushed to the yellow hair and finger tips;
   And one there sang who soft and smooth as snow
   Bloomed like a tinted hyacinth at a show;
And one was blue with famine after love,
   Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and low
The burden of what those were singing of.
One shamed herself in love; one temperately
   Grew gross in soulless love, a sluggish wife;
One famished died for love. Thus two of three
   Took death for love and won him after strife;
One droned in sweetness like a fattened bee:
   All on the threshold, yet all short of life.


Scheme ABABBCBCBDEDED
Poetic Form
Metre 1111010111 1011010001 1101010101 0111110111 1101010101 0111110101 110111101 0101110101 11010111 1101010101 1101111111 1111011101 1101010101 110111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 629
Words 117
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 490
Words per stanza (avg) 117
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Submitted by naama on July 15, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
31

Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English poet who wrote various romantic, devotional, and children's poems. more…

All Christina Rossetti poems | Christina Rossetti Books

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