Analysis of Remembrance

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



I.
Swifter far than summer's flight--
Swifter far than youth’s delight--
Swifter far than happy night,
Art thou come and gone--
As the earth when leaves are dead,
As the night when sleep is sped,
As the heart when joy is fled,
I am left lone, alone.

II.
The swallow summer comes again--
The owlet night resumes her reign--
But the wild-swan youth is fain
To fly with thee, false as thou.--
My heart each day desires the morrow;
Sleep itself is turned to sorrow;
Vainly would my winter borrow
Sunny leaves from any bough.

III.
Lilies for a bridal bed--
Roses for a matron’s head--
Violets for a maiden dead--
Pansies let MY flowers be:
On the living grave I bear
Scatter them without a tear--
Let no friend, however dear,
Waste one hope, one fear for me.


Scheme ABBBXCCCX AXDDEFFFE ACCCGHHXG
Poetic Form
Metre 1 1011101 1011101 1011101 11101 1011111 1011111 1011111 111101 1 01010101 0110101 1011111 1111111 1111010010 10111110 1011101 1011101 1 1010101 1010101 10010101 1011101 1010111 1010101 111101 1111111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 741
Words 142
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 9
Lines Amount 27
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 191
Words per stanza (avg) 46
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
161

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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