Analysis of Does It Pay?
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
If one poor burdened toiler o’er life’s road,
Who meets us by the way,
Goes on less conscious of his galling load,
Then life, indeed, does pay.
If we can show the troubled heart the gain
That lies always in loss,
Why, then, we too are paid for all the pain
Of bearing life’s hard cross.
If some despondent soul to hope is stirred,
Some sad lip made to smile,
By any act of ours, or any word,
Then, life has been worth while.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Traditional rhyme Quatrain |
Metre | 111101111 111101 1111011101 110111 1111010101 11101 1111111101 110111 1101011111 111111 11011101101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 440 |
Words | 86 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 393 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Does It Pay?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10590/does-it-pay%3F>.
Discuss this Ella Wheeler Wilcox 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