Analysis of The Last Ditch
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
LOVE, through your varied views on Art
Untiring have I followed you,
Content to know I had your heart
And was your Art-ideal, too.
As, dear, I was when first we met.
('Twas at the time you worshipped Leighton,
And were attempting to forget
Your Foster and your Noel Paton.)
'Love rhymes with Art,' said your dear voice,
And, at my crude, uncultured age,
I could but blushingly rejoice
That you had passed the Rubens stage.
When Madox Brown and Morris swayed
Your taste, did I not dress and look
Like any Middle Ages maid
In an illuminated book?
I wore strange garments, without shame,
Of formless form and toneless tones,
I might have stepped out of the frame
Of a Rossetti or Burne-Jones.
I stole soft frills from Marcus Stone,
My waist wore Herkomer's disguise,
My slender purse was strained, I own,
But--my silk lay as Sargent's lies.
And when you were abroad--in Prague--
'Mid Cherets I had shone, a star;
Then for your sake I grew as vague
As Mr. Whistler's ladies are.
But now at last you sue in vain,
For here a life's submission ends:
Not even for you will I grow plain
As Aubrey Beardsley's 'lady friends.'
Here I renounce your hand--unless
You find your Art-ideal elsewhere;
I will not wear the kind of dress
That Laurence Housman's people wear!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL XMXM NONO PQPQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11110111 111101 10111111 0111011 11111111 110111010 00010101 110010110 11111111 011111 111101 11110101 1110101 11111101 11010101 0101001 11110011 111011 11111101 10010111 11111101 111101 11011111 1111111 01100101 1111101 11111111 1101101 11111101 11010101 110111111 1101101 11011101 1111011 11110111 1101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,263 |
Words | 230 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 108 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 96 Views
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"The Last Ditch" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8978/the-last-ditch>.
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