Analysis of Fame
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
If I should die, to-day,
To-morrow, maybe, the world would see
Would waken from sleep, and say,
"Why here was talent! why here was worth!
Why here was a luminous light o' the earth.
A soul as free
As the winds of the sea:
To whom was given
A dower of heaven.
And fame, and name, and glory belongs
To this dead singer of living songs.
Bring hither a wreath, for the bride of death!"
And so they would praise me, and so they would raise me
Mayhap, a column, high over the bed
Where I should be lying, all cold and dead.
But I am a living poet!
Walking abroad in the sunlight of God,
Not lying asleep, where the clay worms creep,
And the cold world will not show it,
E'en when it sees that my song should please;
But sneering says: "Avaunt, with thy lays
Do not sing them, and do not bring them
Into this rustling, bustling life.
We have no time, for a jingling rhyme,
In this scene of hurrying, worrying strife."
And so I say, there is but one way
To win me a name, and bring me fame.
And that is, to die, and be buried low,
When the world would praise me, an hour or so.
Scheme | ABACCBBDDEEXBFF XXXXXXXGXGAXHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111 110100111 1101101 111101111 11101001101 0111 101101 11110 01110 010101001 111101101 1100110111 011111011111 101011001 1111101101 11101010 100100111 1100110111 00111111 1111111111 11011111 111101111 011101001 11111011 01111001001 011111111 111010111 0111101101 10111111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,076 |
Words | 218 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 14 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 402 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 107 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 54 Views
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"Fame" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10602/fame>.
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