Analysis of Ballade of Summer's Sleep
Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)
Sweet summer is gone; they have laid her away-
The last sad hours that were touched with her grace-
In the hush where the ghosts of the dead flowers play;
The sleep that is sweet of her slumbering space
Let not a sight or a sound erase
Of the woe that hath fallen on all the lands:
Gather, ye dreams, to her sunny face,
Shadow her head with your golden hands.
The woods that are golden and red for a day
Girdle the hills in a jewelled case,
Like a girl's strange mirth, ere the quick death slay
The beautiful life that he hath in chase.
Darker and darker the shadows pace
Out of the north to the southern sands,
Ushers bearing the winter's mace:
Keep them away with your woven hands.
The yellow light lies on the wide wastes gray,
More bitter and cold than the winds that race,
From the skirts of the autumn, tearing away,
This way and that way, the woodland lace.
In the autumn's cheek is a hectic trace;
Behind her the ghost of the winter stands;
Sweet summer will moan in her soft gray place:
Mantle her head with your glowing hands.
Till the slayer be slain and the spring displace
The might of his arms with her rose-crowned bands,
Let her heart not gather a dream that is base:
Shadow her head with your golden hands.
Scheme | ababbcbC ababbcbc ababbcbc bcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111001 01110101101 001101101101 01111101001 110110101 10111101101 101110101 10111101 01111001101 10010011 1011110111 0100111101 10010011 110110101 10100101 110111101 0101110111 1100110111 10110101001 11011011 0010110101 0100110101 1101100111 100111101 10101100101 0111110111 10111001111 10111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,210 |
Words | 236 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 240 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 42 Views
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"Ballade of Summer's Sleep" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3618/ballade-of-summer%27s-sleep>.
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