Analysis of The Fallen Leaves
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton 1808 (Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Sheridan London) – 1877 (London)
WE stand among the fallen leaves,
Young children at our play,
And laugh to see the yellow things
Go rustling on their way:
Right merrily we hunt them down,
The autumn winds and we,
Nor pause to gaze where snow-drifts lie,
Or sunbeams gild the tree:
With dancing feet we leap along
Where wither'd boughs are strown;
Nor past nor future checks our song--
The present is our own.
II.
We stand among the fallen leaves
In youth's enchanted spring--
When Hope (who wearies at the last)
First spreads her eagle wing.
We tread with steps of conscious strength
Beneath the leafless trees,
And the colour kindles on our cheek
As blows the winter breeze;
While, gazing towards the cold grey sky,
Clouded with snow and rain,
We wish the old year all past by,
And the young spring come again.
III.
We stand among the fallen leaves
In manhood's haughty prime--
When first our pausing hearts begin
To love 'the olden time;'
And, as we gaze, we sigh to think
How many a year hath pass'd
Since 'neath those cold and faded trees
Our footsteps wander'd last;
And old companions--now perchance
Estranged, forgot, or dead--
Come round us, as those autumn leaves
Are crush'd beneath our tread.
IV.
We stand among the fallen leaves
In our own autumn day--
And, tott'ring on with feeble steps,
Pursue our cheerless way.
We look not back--too long ago
Hath all we loved been lost;
Nor forward--for we may not live
To see our new hope cross'd:
But on we go--the sun's faint beam
A feeble warmth imparts--
Childhood without its joy returns--
The present fills our hearts!
Scheme | Abxbcdedfcfxg Ahihxjxjexexg Akxkxijixlalm Abxbxnmnxoxo |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 1101101 01110101 110111 11001111 010101 11111111 11101 11011101 110111 111101101 0101101 1 11010101 010101 1111101 110101 11111101 010101 00111101 110101 110010111 101101 11011111 0011101 1 11010101 01101 111010101 110101 01111111 1100111 11110101 101101 01010101 010111 11111101 1101101 1 11010101 0101101 0111101 011011 11111101 111111 11011111 1110111 11110111 010101 1011101 0101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,551 |
Words | 279 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 13, 13, 12 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 300 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 69 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 33 Views
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"The Fallen Leaves" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4795/the-fallen-leaves>.
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