Analysis of Ballad of Dead Friends
As we the withered ferns
By the roadway lying,
Time, the jester, spurns
All our prayers and prying --
All our tears and sighing,
Sorrow, change, and woe --
All our where-and-whying
For friends that come and go.
Life awakes and burns,
Age and death defying,
Till at last it learns
All but Love is dying;
Love's the trade we're plying,
God has willed it so;
Shrouds are what we're buying
For friends that come and go.
Man forever yearns
For the thing that's flying.
Everywhere he turns,
Men to dust are drying, --
Dust that wanders, eying
(With eyes that hardly glow)
New faces, dimly spying
For friends that come and go.
And thus we all are nighing
The truth we fear to know:
Death will end our crying
For friends that come and go.
Scheme | ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Ballade |
Metre | 110101 10110 10101 1101010 1101010 10101 110101 111101 1101 101010 11111 111110 101110 11111 111110 111101 10101 101110 1011 111110 11101 111101 1101010 111101 011111 011111 1111010 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 743 |
Words | 139 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 140 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 172 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Ballad of Dead Friends" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9945/ballad-of-dead-friends>.
Discuss this Edwin Arlington Robinson poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In