Analysis of We Shall Surely Die
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
We shall surely die:
Must we needs grow old?
Grow old and cold,
And we know not why?
O, the By-and-By,
And the tale that’s told!
We shall surely die:
Must we needs grow old?
Grow old and sigh,
Grudge and withhold,
Resent and scold?…
Not you and I?
We shall surely die!
| Scheme | ABba abAB abbaA |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Rondel |
| Metre | 11101 11111 1101 01111 10101 00111 11101 11111 1101 1001 0101 1101 11101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic dimeter |
| Characters | 268 |
| Words | 56 |
| Sentences | 8 |
| Stanzas | 3 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 5 |
| Lines Amount | 13 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 15 |
| Words per line (avg) | 4 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 66 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 16 sec read
- 106 Views
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"We Shall Surely Die" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40583/we-shall-surely-die>.
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