Analysis of Eve
Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)
'While I sit at the door
Sick to gaze within
Mine eye weepeth sore
For sorrow and sin:
As a tree my sin stands
To darken all lands;
Death is the fruit it bore.
'How have Eden bowers grown
Without Adam to bend them!
How have Eden flowers blown
Squandering their sweet breath
Without me to tend them!
The Tree of Life was ours,
Tree twelvefold-fruited,
Most lofty tree that flowers,
Most deeply rooted:
I chose the tree of death.
'Hadst thou but said me nay,
Adam, my brother,
I might have pined away;
I, but none other:
God might have let thee stay
Safe in our garden,
By putting me away
Beyond all pardon.
'I, Eve, sad mother
Of all who must live,
I, not another
Plucked bitterest fruit to give
My friend, husband, lover—
O wanton eyes, run over;
Who but I should grieve?—
Cain hath slain his brother:
Of all who must die mother,
Miserable Eve!'
Thus she sat weeping,
Thus Eve our mother,
Where one lay sleeping
Slain by his brother.
Greatest and least
Each piteous beast
To hear her voice
Forgot his joys
And set aside his feast.
The mouse paused in his walk
And dropped his wheaten stalk;
Grave cattle wagged their heads
In rumination;
The eagle gave a cry
From his cloud station;
Larks on thyme beds
Forbore to mount or sing;
Bees drooped upon the wing;
The raven perched on high
Forgot his ration;
The conies in their rock,
A feeble nation,
Quaked sympathetical;
The mocking-bird left off to mock;
Huge camels knelt as if
In deprecation;
The kind hart's tears were falling;
Chattered the wistful stork;
Dove-voices with a dying fall
Cooed desolation
Answering grief by grief.
Only the serpent in the dust
Wriggling and crawling,
Grinned an evil grin and thrust
His tongue out with its fork.
Scheme | ABABCCA DEDFEGHGHF IJIJHKIK JXJXJJLJJL MJMJHHXXH NNOKPKOMMPKQKRQXBMSRKX HMHS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (31%) Tetractys (23%) |
Metre | 111101 11101 1111 11001 101111 11011 110111 1110101 0110111 1110101 100111 011111 0111110 111 1101110 11010 110111 111111 10110 111101 11110 111111 101010 110101 01110 11110 11111 11010 1100111 111010 1101110 11111 111110 1111110 10001 11110 111010 11110 11110 1001 111 1101 0111 010111 011011 011101 110111 0010 010101 11110 1111 11111 110101 010111 01110 01011 01010 11 01011111 110111 01 0111010 10101 11010101 1010 100111 10010001 1010 1110101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,643 |
Words | 311 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 10, 8, 10, 9, 22, 4 |
Lines Amount | 70 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 190 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 273 Views
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"Eve" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5787/eve>.
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