Analysis of Growing Old
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Little by little the year grows old,
The red leaves drop from the maple boughs;
The sun grows dim, and the winds blow cold,
Down from the distant arctic seas.
Out of the skies the soft light dies,
And the shadows of autumn come creeping over,
And the bee and the bird are no longer heard
In grove or meadow, or field of clover.
Little by little our lives grow old,
Our faces no longer are fair to see;
For gray creeps into the curls of gold,
And the red fades out of the cheeks, ah me!
And the birds that sang till our heart strings rang
With strains of hope, and joy, and pleasure,
Have flown away; and our hearts today
Hear only the weird wind's solemn measure.
Youth and summer, and beauty and bloom,
Droop and die in the autumn weather,
But up from the gloom of the winter's tomb,
They shall rise, in God's good time, together.
Scheme | AXAX XBXB ACAC XBXB DBDB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Etheree (35%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 101100111 011110101 011100111 11010101 11010111 00111011010 00100111101 011111110 1011010111 10101101111 111010111 0011110111 00111110111 111101010 1101010101 1100111010 101001001 101001010 1110110101 1110111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 820 |
Words | 162 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 129 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 120 Views
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