Analysis of The Red House
John Freeman 1880 – 1929
On the wide fields the water gleams like snow,
And snow like water pale beneath pale sky,
When old and burdened the white clouds are stooped low.
Sudden as thought, or startled near bird's cry,
The whiteness of first light on hills of snow
New dropped from skiey hills of tumbling white
Streams from the ridge to where the long woods lie;
And tall ridge-trees lift their soft crowns of white
Above slim bodies all black or flecked with snow.
By the tossed foam of the not yet frozen brook
Black pigs go straggling over fields of snow;
The air is full of snow, and starling and rook
Are blacker amid the myriad streams of light.
Warm as old fire the Red House burns yet bright
Beneath the unmelting snows of pine and larch,
While February moves as slow, as slow
As Spring might never come, never come March.
Amid such snows, by generations haunted,
By echoes, memories and dreams enchanted,
Firm when dark winds through the night stamp and shout,
Brightest when time silvers the world all about,
That old house called _The Heart_ burns, burns, and still
Outbraves the mortal threat of the hanging hill.
Scheme | ABABACBCADADCCEAE XXFFGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011010111 0111010111 11010011111 1011110111 0101111111 1111111001 1101110111 0111111111 01110111111 10111011101 111110111 01111101001 110010100111 11110011111 010111101 110011111 1111011011 0111101010 11010001010 1111101101 10111001101 1111111101 1010110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,087 |
Words | 199 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 17, 6 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 440 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 99 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
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