Analysis of I Told You
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
I told you the winter would go, love,
I told you the winter would go,
That he'd flee in shame when the south wind came,
And you smiled when I told you so.
You said the blustering fellow
Would never yield to a breeze,
That his cold, icy breath had frozen to death
The flowers, the birds, and trees.
And I told you the snow would melt, love,
In the passionate glance o' the sun;
And the leaves o' the trees, and the flowers and bees,
Would come back again, one by one.
That the great, gray clouds would vanish,
And the sky turn tender and blue;
And the sweet birds would sing, and talk of the spring
And, love, it has all come true.
I told you that sorrow would fade, love,
And you would forget half your pain;
That the sweet bird of song would waken ere long,
And sing in your bosom again;
That hope would creep out of the shadows,
And back to its nest in your heart,
And gladness would come, and find its old home,
And that sorrow at length would depart.
I told you that grief seldom killed, love,
Though the heart might seem dead for awhile.
But the world is so bright, and full of warm light
That 'twould waken at length, in its smile.
Ah, love! was I not a true prophet?
There's a sweet happy smile on your face;
Your sadness has flown - the snow-drift is gone,
And the buttercups bloom in its place.
Scheme | ABXBBCXC ADCDXEXE AXXXXFXF AGXGXHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111010111 11101011 1110110111 01111111 11010010 1101101 11110111011 0100101 011101111 001001101 001101001001 11101111 10111110 00111001 00111101101 0111111 111110111 01101111 10111111011 01011001 11111101 01111011 011101111 011011101 111111011 101111101 10111101111 111011011 111110110 101101111 1101101111 00101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,316 |
Words | 257 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 249 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 127 Views
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