Analysis of Homecoming
Robert Lowell 1917 (Boston) – 1977 (New York City)
What was is... since 1930;
the boys in my old gang
are senior partners. They start up
bald like baby birds
to embrace retirement.
At the altar of surrender,
I met you
in the hour of credulity.
How your misfortune came out clearly
to us at twenty.
At the gingerbread casino,
how innocent the nights we made it
on our Vesuvio martinis
with no vermouth but vodka
to sweeten the dry gin,
the lash across my face
that night we adored...
soon every night and all,
when your sweet, amorous
repetition changed.
Fertility is not to the forward,
or beauty to the precipitous,
things gone wrong
clothe summer
with gold leaf.
Sometimes
I catch my mind
circling for you with glazed eye,
my lost love hunting
your lost face.
Summer to summer,
the poplars sere
in the glare,
it's a town for the young,
they break themselves against the surf.
No dog knows my smell.
Scheme | XXXXX AXBBB XXXXX CXXDX XDXAX XXXXC AXXXX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111 010111 11010111 11101 1010100 10101010 111 001010100 110101110 11110 1010010 110001111 1101010 1101110 110011 010111 11101 1100101 111100 0101 0100111010 110100100 111 110 111 01 1111 10011111 11110 111 10110 011 001 101101 11010101 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 835 |
Words | 162 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 1 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 83 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 19 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 48 sec read
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"Homecoming" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56520/homecoming>.
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