Analysis of As Dies The Year
Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)
The Old Year knocks at the farmhouse door.
October, come with your matron gaze,
From the fruit you are storing for winter days,
And prop him up on the granary floor,
Where the straw lies threshed and the corn stands heaped:
Let him eat of the bread he reaped;
He is feeble and faint, and can work no more.
Weaker he waneth, and weaker yet.
November, shower your harvest down,
Chestnut, and mast, and acorn brown;
For you he laboured, so pay the debt.
Make him a pallet-he cannot speak-
And a pillow of moss for his pale pinched cheek,
With your golden leaves for coverlet.
He is numb to touch, he is deaf to call.
December, hither with muffled tread,
And gaze on the Year, for the Year is dead,
And over him cast a wan white pall.
Take down the mattock, and ply the spade.
And deep in the clay let his clay be laid,
And snowflakes fall at his funeral.
Thus may I die, since it must be,
My wage well earned and my work-days done,
And the seasons following one by one
To the slow sweet end that the wise foresee;
Fed from the store of my ripened sheaves,
Laid to rest on my fallen leaves,
And with snow-white souls to weep for me.
Scheme | ABBACCA DEEDFFC XGGXHHX IJJIKKI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111011 010111101 10111101101 01111011 1011100111 11110111 11100101111 10110101 010101101 1010101 11111101 110101101 00101111111 1110111 1111111111 010101101 0110110111 010110111 11010101 0100111111 01111100 11111111 111101111 0010100111 1011110101 110111101 11111101 011111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,109 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 217 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 62 Views
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