Analysis of The Prisoner

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)



I count the dismal time by months and years
Since last I felt the green sward under foot,
And the great breath of all things summer-
Met mine upon my lips. Now earth appears
As strange to me as dreams of distant spheres
Or thoughts of Heaven we weep at. Nature's lute
Sounds on, behind this door so closely shut,
A strange wild music to the prisoner's ears,
Dilated by the distance, till the brain
Grows dim with fancies which it feels too
While ever, with a visionary pain,
Past the precluded senses, sweep and Rhine
Streams, forests, glades, and many a golden train
Of sunlit hills transfigured to Divine.


Scheme ABCAADEAFGFHFH
Poetic Form
Metre 1101011101 1111011101 001111110 1101111101 1111111101 11110111101 1101111101 01110101001 0101010101 111101111 110101001 1001010101 11010100101 1111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 602
Words 112
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 481
Words per stanza (avg) 110
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 08, 2023

34 sec read
105

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. more…

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