Analysis of To A Poet That Died Young
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
Minstrel, what have you to do
With this man that, after you,
Sharing not your happy fate,
Sat as England's Laureate?
Vainly, in these iron days,
Strives the poet in your praise,
Minstrel, by whose singing side
Beauty walked, until you died.
Still, though none should hark again,
Drones the blue-fly in the pane,
Thickly crusts the blackest moss,
Blows the rose its musk across,
Floats the boat that is forgot
None the less to Camelot.
Many a bard's untimely death
Lends unto his verses breath;
Here's a song was never sung:
Growing old is dying young.
Minstrel, what is this to you:
That a man you never knew,
When your grave was far and green,
Sat and gossipped with a queen?
Thalia knows how rare a thing
Is it, to grow old and sing;
When a brown and tepid tide
Closes in on every side.
Who shall say if Shelley's gold
Had withstood it to grow old?
Scheme | AAXXBBCC XXDDEE FFGGAAHH IICCJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011111 1111101 1011101 1110100 1001101 1010011 1011101 1010111 1111101 1011001 1010101 1011101 1011101 101110 10010101 1101101 1011101 1011101 1011111 1011101 1111101 101101 1011101 1111101 1010101 10011001 1111101 1011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 831 |
Words | 160 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6, 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 165 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 120 Views
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"To A Poet That Died Young" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9487/to-a-poet-that-died-young>.
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