Analysis of The Saddest Hour
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
The saddest hour of anguish and of loss
Is not that season of supreme despair
When we can find no least light anywhere
To gild the dread, black shadow of the Cross;
Not in that luxury of sorrow when
We sup on salt of tears, and drink the gall
Of memories of days beyond recall—
Of lost delights that cannot come again.
But when, with eyes that are no longer wet,
We look out on the great, wide world of men,
And, smiling, lean toward a bright to-morrow,
Then backward shrink, with sudden keen regret,
To find that we are learning to forget:
Ah! then we face the saddest hour of sorrow.
Scheme | ABBACDDCECFEEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010110011 1111010101 111111110 110111101 1011001101 1111110101 110011011 1101110101 1111111101 1111011111 01010101110 1101110101 1111110101 111101010110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 582 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 456 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 53 Views
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