Elizabeth Barrett
Sample analysis of a poem
The Sunderland Children (by Alice Meynell)
(On the 183 Sunderland children who lost their lives in a panic at the Victoria Hall, 16th June 1883)
This was the surplus childhood, held as cheap! (10)
Not worth the care which shields (6)
The lambs that are to stay, the corn to reap – (10)
The promise of the fields. (6)
The nations guards her future. Fruit and grass (10)
And vegetable life (6)
Are fostered league by league. But oh, the mass (10)
Of childhood over-rife! (6)
O mass, o units! Oh, the separate story (11)
Planned for each breather of breath! (7)
This futile young mankind and transitory, (11)
Is left to stray to Death! (6)
O promise, presage, menace! Upon these (10)
A certain seal is laid! (6)
Unkept, unbroken are the auguries (10)
These little children made. (6)
For threat is bound with promise; and the nation (11)
Holds festival of regret (7)
Over these dead – dead in their isolation – (11)
Wisely. She feared their threat. (6)
ANALYSIS
The first step in the analysis of the poem should be to identify the meter and the metrical deviations that we may find in it.
In terms of the meter the poem is written in iambus (as in every foot we have two syllables, with the stress falling on the second syllable of the foot). The number of syllables in each line varies (the numbers are shown in brackets) but the most typical metrical pattern is the alternation of iambic pentameter with iambic trimeter (a 5-foot line alternating with a 3-foot line).
The poem is divided into 5 stanzas, each with cross rhymes. Therefore, the rhyming pattern can be described as:
ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ.
Most rhymes are full and consist only of a single syllable – that is, they contain the same vowel in the stressed syllable, followed by the same consonant. The exception “separate story – transitory”, “upon these – auguries”, where the rhymes are established with the help of word combinations.
The lines are
The Sunderland Children (by Alice Meynell)
(On the 183 Sunderland children who lost their lives in a panic at the Victoria Hall, 16th June 1883)
This was the surplus childhood, held as cheap! (10)
Not worth the care which shields (6)
The lambs that are to stay, the corn to reap – (10)
The promise of the fields. (6)
The nations guards her future. Fruit and grass (10)
And vegetable life (6)
Are fostered league by league. But oh, the mass (10)
Of childhood over-rife! (6)
O mass, o units! Oh, the separate story (11)
Planned for each breather of breath! (7)
This futile young mankind and transitory, (11)
Is left to stray to Death! (6)
O promise, presage, menace! Upon these (10)
A certain seal is laid! (6)
Unkept, unbroken are the auguries (10)
These little children made. (6)
For threat is bound with promise; and the nation (11)
Holds festival of regret (7)
Over these dead – dead in their isolation – (11)
Wisely. She feared their threat. (6)
ANALYSIS
The first step in the analysis of the poem should be to identify the meter and the metrical deviations that we may find in it.
In terms of the meter the poem is written in iambus (as in every foot we have two syllables, with the stress falling on the second syllable of the foot). The number of syllables in each line varies (the numbers are shown in brackets) but the most typical metrical pattern is the alternation of iambic pentameter with iambic trimeter (a 5-foot line alternating with a 3-foot line).
The poem is divided into 5 stanzas, each with cross rhymes. Therefore, the rhyming pattern can be described as:
ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ.
Most rhymes are full and consist only of a single syllable – that is, they contain the same vowel in the stressed syllable, followed by the same consonant. The exception “separate story – transitory”, “upon these – auguries”, where the rhymes are established with the help of word combinations.
The lines are