Analysis of Black Sheep
Richard Francis Burton 1821 (Torquay) – 1890 (Trieste)
FROM their folded mates they wander far,
Their ways seem harsh and wild:
They follow the beck of a baleful star,
Their paths are dream-beguiled.
Yet haply they sought but a wider range,
Some loftier mountain slope,
And little recked of the country strange
Beyond the gates of hope.
And haply a bell with a luring call
Summoned their feet to tread
Midst the cruel rocks, where the deep pitfall
And the lurking snare are spread.
Maybe, in spite of their tameless days
Of outcast liberty,
They ’re sick at heart for the homely ways
Where their gathered brothers be.
And oft at night, when the plains fall dark
And the hills loom large and dim,
For the shepherd’s voice they mutely hark,
And their souls go out to him.
Meanwhile, “Black sheep! black sheep!” we cry,
Safe in the inner fold;
And maybe they hear, and wonder why,
And marvel, out in the cold.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Traditional rhyme Quatrain |
Metre | 111011101 111101 1100110101 111101 111110101 1100101 010110101 010111 010110101 101111 101011011 0010111 10011111 11100 1111110101 1110101 011110111 0011101 10101111 0111111 1111111 100101 010110101 0101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 902 |
Words | 158 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 157 Views
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