Analysis of Gold and Love for Dearie

Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)



Out on the mountain over the town,
   All night long, all night long,
The trolls go up and the trolls go down,
   Bearing their packs and singing a song;
And this is the song the hill-folk croon,
As they trudge in the light of the misty moon--
This is ever their dolorous tune:
   'Gold, gold! ever more gold--
   Bright red gold for dearie!'

Deep in the hill a father delves
   All night long, all night long;
None but the peering, furtive elves
   Sees his toil and hears his song;
Merrily ever the cavern rings
As merrily ever his pick he swings,
And merrily ever this song he sings:
   'Gold, gold! ever more gold--
   Bright red gold for dearie!'

Mother is rocking thy lowly bed
   All night long, all night long,
Happy to smooth thy curly head,
   To hold thy hand and to sing her song:
'T is not of the hill-folk dwarfed and old,
Nor the song of thy father, stanch and bold,
And the burthen it beareth is not of gold:
   But it 's 'Love, love! nothing but love--
      Mother's love for dearie!'


Scheme aBabcccDE fBfbgggDE hBhbdddxe
Poetic Form
Metre 110101001 111111 011100111 101101001 011010111 11100110101 1110111 111011 11111 10010101 111111 11010101 1110111 100100101 1100101111 0100101111 111011 11111 101101101 111111 10111101 111101101 1111011101 1011110101 001111111 111111011 10111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 984
Words 189
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 9
Lines Amount 27
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 244
Words per stanza (avg) 61
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

56 sec read
106

Eugene Field

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. more…

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