Analysis of An Empty Crib
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Beside a crib that holds a baby’s stocking,
A tattered picture book, a broken toy,
A sleeping mother dreams that she is rocking
Her fair-haired cherub boy.
Upon the cradle’s side her light touch keeping,
She gently rocks it, crooning low a song;
And smiles to think her little one is sleeping,
So peacefully and long.
Step light, breathe low, break not her rapturous dreaming,
Wake not the sleeper from her trance of joy,
For never more save in sweet slumber-seeming
Will she watch o’er her little boy.
God pity her when from her dream Elysian
She wakes to see the empty crib, and weep;
Knowing her joy was but a sleeper’s vision,
Tread lightly – let her sleep.
Scheme | ABAB ACAC ABAB DEDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 0101110110 0101010101 01010111110 011101 01010101110 1101110101 01110101110 110001 111111010010 1101010111 11011011010 11110101 110011011 1111010101 10011101010 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 677 |
Words | 121 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 37 Views
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"An Empty Crib" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10518/an-empty-crib>.
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