Analysis of Ballad by the Fire
Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869 – 1935
Slowly I smoke and hug my knee,
The while a witless masquerade
Of things that only children see
Floats in a mist of light and shade:
They pass, a flimsy cavalcade,
And with a weak, remindful glow,
The falling embers break and fade,
As one by one the phantoms go.
Then, with a melancholy glee
To think where once my fancy strayed,
I muse on what the years may be
Whose coming tales are all unsaid,
Till tongs and shovel, snugly laid
Within their shadowed niches, grow
By grim degrees to pick and spade,
As one by one the phantoms go.
But then, what though the mystic Three
Around me ply their merry trade? --
And Charon soon may carry me
Across the gloomy Stygian glade? --
Be up, my soul! nor be afraid
Of what some unborn year may show;
But mind your human debts are paid,
As one by one the phantoms go.
Life is the game that must be played:
This truth at least, good friend, we know;
So live and laugh, nor be dismayed
As one by one the phantoms go.
Scheme | ababbcbC abaxbc bC abab bcbC bcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10110111 0101001 11110101 10011101 1101010 010111 01010101 11110101 1101001 11111101 11110111 11011101 11010101 01110101 11011101 11110101 11110101 01111101 01011101 010101001 11111101 11111111 11110111 11110101 11011111 11111111 11011101 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 964 |
Words | 188 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6, 2, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 122 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 363 Views
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