Analysis of The Truth Teller
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
The Truth Teller lifts the curtain,
And shows us the people's plight;
And everything seems uncertain,
And nothing at all looks right.
Yet out of the blackness groping,
My heart finds a world in bloom;
For it somehow is fashioned for hoping,
And it cannot live in the gloom.
He tells us from border to border,
That race is warring with race;
With riot and mad disorder,
The earth is a wretched place;
And yet ere the sun is setting
I am thinking of peace, not strife;
For my heart has a way of forgetting
All things save the joy of life.
I heard in my Youth's beginning
That earth was a region of woe,
And trouble, and sorrow, and sinning:
The Truth Teller told me so.
I knew it was true, and tragic;
And I mourned over much that was wrong;
And then, by some curious magic,
The heart of me burst into song.
The years have been going, going,
A mixture of pleasure and pain;
But the Truth Teller's books are showing
That evil is on the gain.
And I know that I ought to be grieving,
And I should be too sad to sing;
But somehow I keep on believing
That life is a glorious thing.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFCGCG CHCHIJIJ CKCKCCCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01101010 0110101 0101010 0101111 11101010 1110101 111110110 01101001 111110110 1111011 11001010 0110101 01101110 11101111 1111011010 1110111 11011010 11101011 010010010 0110111 11111010 011101111 011110010 01111011 01111010 01011001 101101110 1101101 0111111110 01111111 11111010 11101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,051 |
Words | 211 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 208 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 68 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Truth Teller" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10916/the-truth-teller>.
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