Analysis of Archy's Song from Charles the First (A Widow Bird Sate Mourning For Her Love)

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



Heigho! the lark and the owl!
        One flies the morning, and one lulls the night:
    Only the nightingale, poor fond soul,
        Sings like the fool through darkness and light.

'A widow bird sate mourning for her love
              Upon a wintry bough;
          The frozen wind crept on above,
              The freezing stream below.

'There was no leaf upon the forest bare,
            No flower upon the ground,
          And little motion in the air
            Except the mill-wheel's sound.'


Scheme XAXA BXBX CDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 101001 1101001101 100100111 110111001 0101110101 010101 01011101 010101 1111010101 1100101 01010001 010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 523
Words 77
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 107
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 12, 2023

23 sec read
137

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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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A Dithyramb
    B A turn
    C Enjambment
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