Analysis of Legend

Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)



THERE is an hour, they say,
On which your dream has power:
Then all you wish for comes,
As comes the lost field-bird
Down to the island-lights;
There is an hour, they say,
That's woven with your wish:
In dawn, or dayli’ gone,
In mirk-dark, or at noon,
In hush or hum of day,
May be that secret hour.

A herd-boy in the rain
Who looked o'er stony fields;
A young man in a street,
When fife and drum went by,
Making the sunlight shrill;
A girl in a lane,
When the long June twilight
Made friendly far-off things,
Had watch upon the hour:
The dooms they met are in
The song my grand-dam sings.


Scheme AbxxxAxxxab cxxxxcxdbxd
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011 1111110 111111 110111 110101 1111011 110111 01111 011111 011111 1111010 011001 1110101 011001 110111 10011 01001 10111 110111 1101010 011110 011111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 578
Words 117
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 11, 11
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 222
Words per stanza (avg) 58
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
59

Padraic Colum

Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. more…

All Padraic Colum poems | Padraic Colum Books

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