Analysis of Music
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
"For Music keeps the key of memory.—Croly.
Oh yes, the sounds were sweet as those
That die away at Evening's close,
And gentle as the tones that fall
From waters wildly musical.
But Music is not dear to me,
It wakes too much of memory;
There is a spell in Music's sigh
That breathes too much of days gone by.
The silver tone, the sweet voiced shell,
To me are sad as the farewell
Of parting lovers: Music wakes
The wildest throbs, and Music takes
Each shape of fancy; but it brings
To me the shades of lovely things
Past, and for ever,–hopes deferred,
Or, like the song of the spring bird,
Dying when sweetest. Music's sigh
First taught me love's idolatry,
Waked my young heart to find (too late)
It might be left all desolate;
To curse the dream-like life before,
To love the once loved song no more;
To know, hope, genius, spirit fled,
Soul-sickness, feeling withered!–
Rather be mine the heartless smile,
A flower on the lava; while
Beneath is flame and barrenness
The colours do not glow the less.
I bade my heart once be my world,
And dreamed it could; but I was hurled
From my enchanted pinnacle
Of hope, of joy, of trust, to dwell
Mid those stern truths which chilled that heart,
And bade youth's fairy lights depart.
And Music has to me a tone
Sacred to thoughts, to feelings gone,
When love was faith, or ere I knew
Its altar frail, its sigh untrue—
That it was like the hues that spring
Upon the rainbow's wandering.
But now those feelings cannot be,
Their echo is too sad for me;
For what can Music breathe me now?–
The blighted hope, the broken vow!
Scheme | A BXAACCDDAAEEFFGGDCXXHHXGAABXIIAAJJXXKKLLCCMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111001 11010111 11011101 01010111 11010100 11011111 11111100 11010101 11111111 01010111 1111101 11010101 01010101 11110111 11011101 10110101 11011011 10110101 11110100 11111111 11111100 11011101 11011111 11110101 1101010 10110101 01010101 011101 0111101 11111111 01111111 11010100 11111111 11111111 01110101 01011101 10111101 11111111 11011101 11110111 0101100 11110101 11011111 11110111 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,574 |
Words | 295 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 44 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 606 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 145 |
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"Music" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/51708/music>.
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