Analysis of Ballad
Sydney Thompson Dobell 1824 (Kent) – 1874
Oh Ladye fair, oh Ladye fair and mine,
Where'er thou be,
Canst thou divine
The Love that hungers thus in me?
The secret cell where lone I lie and sigh for thee?
Long, long I wait, but shall I wait in vain?
How long the Summer waited for the Rose!
Ah say, oh say I shall not wait in vain!
How long, ah fairest! must I keep
The vigil of unsleeping eyes?
Summer's sighs avail,
Summer that sang himself to sleep,
Summer that piping in a grove all day
Played out his lovelorn soul upon the nightingale,
Oh songs more blest than mine, ah happier sighs!
For at rich midnight all the bells
Of all the valley-lilies rang a tune
Like moonlight up and down the dells,
And June
As a naked maiden thro' the shades
Slipt thro' the woods and took her throne.
By this the east is red and white,
The queen of months is seen and known,
Like flocks of doves that soar and fall,
Like butterflies that hover and alight,
Like tears of ecstasy when tear on tear
From both wild eyes rains thro' the wreathèd hands,
The blush of morning drops upon the lands,
The Rose, the Rose is here!
And rapture, rapture crowns the passion of the year
Hark, hark,
Something stirs the arching green,
Thro' the verdurous aisles the doves are cooing,
And the birds of smaller quire,
As fairies that do run and sing
Before the bridal of their queen,
Flittering and fondly twittering,
Lead thro' the languid air the sick delight of wooing.
Sure thro' the distance dim I see the morn again!
Leaves that meet and part the hues of dawn disclose.
Has she heard my woes?
Has she pitied all my pain?
'Tis she! 'tis she!
As Summer waited for the Rose
I shall not wait in vain!
As June soft slipping warms the purple Dark,
So thou slippest thro' the shades to me,
So throbs my throbbing heart its thickening throbs to thee.
Scheme | ABABBCD CEFGEXGF XHDHXI JIXJXKKXX LMNXNMLN XDDCBDCLBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111101 1011 1101 0111101 010111110111 1111111101 1101010101 1111111101 11110111 010111 10101 10110111 1011000111 11111010100 11111111001 1111101 1101010101 1110101 01 101010101 11010101 11011101 01111101 11111101 110110001 1111001111 1111110111 0111010101 010111 010101010101 11 1010101 101101110 0011101 11011101 01010111 10101 1101010101110 110101110101 11101011101 11111 111111 1111 11010101 111101 1111010101 11110111 1111011100111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,734 |
Words | 337 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 8, 6, 9, 8, 10 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 230 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 24, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 131 Views
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"Ballad" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35869/ballad>.
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