Analysis of I cannot live with You (No. 640)
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
I cannot live with You--
It would be Life--
And Life is over there--
Behind the Shelf
The Sexton keeps the Key to--
Putting up
Our Life--His Porcelain--
Like a Cup--
Discarded of the Housewife--
Quaint--or Broke--
A newer Sevres pleases--
Old Ones crack--
I could not die--with You--
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down--
You--could not--
And I--could I stand by
And see You--freeze--
Without my Right of Frost--
Death's privilege?
Nor could I rise--with You--
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus'--
That New Grace
Glow plain--and foreign
On my homesick Eye--
Except that You than He
Shone closer by--
They'd judge Us--How--
For You--served Heaven--You know,
Or sought to--
I could not--
Because You saturated Sight--
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise
And were You lost, I would be--
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame--
And were You--saved--
And I--condemned to be
Where You were not--
That self--were Hell to Me--
So We must meet apart--
You there--I--here--
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are--and Prayer--
And that White Sustenance--
Despair--
Scheme | ABCX ADED BXXX AXXF GXXX AHXH EGIG XXAF XXJX IKXK XIFI XXXCJC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (48%) Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 110111 1111 011101 0101 0101011 101 1011100 101 010101 111 010110 111 111111 1111 1101011 111 011111 0111 011111 110 111111 0111 11110 111 11010 1111 011111 1101 1111 1111011 111 111 0111001 011111 110100 110 0011111 111 110 101001 0011 010111 1101 110111 111101 1111 110101 110101 011100 01 |
Closest metre | Iambic dimeter |
Characters | 1,062 |
Words | 189 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 6 |
Lines Amount | 50 |
Letters per line (avg) | 16 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 68 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 16 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 57 sec read
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"I cannot live with You (No. 640)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/11728/i-cannot-live-with-you-%28no.-640%29>.
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