Analysis of Old Woman of the Roads
Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)
O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
To have a clock with weights and chains
And pendulum swinging up and down!
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled and white and blue and brown!
I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor,
And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue and speckled store!
I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself,
Sure of a bed and loth to leave
The ticking clock and the shining delph!
Och! but I'm weary of mist and dark,
And roads where there's never a house nor bush,
And tired I am of bog and road,
And the crying wind and the lonesome hush!
And I am praying to God on high,
And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house - a house of my own
Out of the wind's and the rain's way.
Scheme | ABCBDEFEGHIHJFKFLMNOPGQG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 11010101 011101010 01110101 11011101 010010101 01011101 10010101 11110101 10010101 01011101 11010101 11110111 01010011 11010111 010100101 111101101 0111100111 010111101 0010100101 011101111 011101101 1010101111 11010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 874 |
Words | 178 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 24 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 666 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 176 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 180 Views
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