Analysis of The Ogre Slam-The-Door
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
There is a certain castle that is beautiful and fair,
And plants, and birds, and pretty things, fill every room and hall,
But alas! for the unhappy folks who make their dwelling there,
A dreadful ogre haunts the house and tries to kill them all.
Some day I fear will find them dead and stretched out in their gore
The victims of this ogre grim, this wicked Slam-the-door!
He's a very tiny ogre just about as tall as you!
He never carries hidden arms, or plays with guns and knives.
And yet he almost splits the heads of people thro' and thro.'
And I think him very dangerous to comfort and to lives.
And he often shakes the castle from the ceiling to the floor.
This awful, awful ogre known as little Slam-the-door.
He gets up bright and early, and he's, oh, so wide awake!
And wo! to all the sleepy heads and invalids who doze,
They dream the sky is caving in, or that a vast earthquake
Has suddenly convulsed the world and ended their repose,
As to and fro, and up and down, still noisier than before,
They hear the hurrying, flurrying feet of ogre Slam-the-door.
Though the Princess of the Castle has a headache, and is ill,
Though the Prince is in his study and wants quiet for an hour,
This wicked little ogre won't be quiet-or keep still
I almost think he sometimes knows he has them in his power.
Alas, alas for all the folks, their sorrows I deplore-
The folks shut in that castle with the ogre Slam-the-door.
Scheme | ABABCC XXAXCC DEDECC FGFGCC |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101110001 010101011100101 101100101111101 01010101011111 11111111011011 01011101110101 101010101011111 11010101111101 0111101110101 011110100110011 011010101010101 11010101110101 11110100111101 01110101010011 1101110011011 1100101010101 110101011100101 11010011110101 10101010101011 1011011001101110 11010101110111 11110111110110 01011101110101 01101101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,402 |
Words | 267 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 275 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 44 Views
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