Analysis of The Way Of It
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
This is the way of it, wide world over,
One is beloved, and one is the lover,
One gives and the other receives.
One lavishes all in a wild emotion,
One offers a smile for a life’s devotion,
One hopes and the other believes,
One lies awake in the night to weep,
And the other drifts off in a sweet sound sleep.
One soul is aflame with a godlike passion,
One plays with love in an idler’s fashion,
One speaks and the other hears.
One sobs, ‘I love you, ’ and wet eyes to show it,
And one laughs lightly, and says, ‘I know it, ’
With smiles for the other’s tears.
One lives for the other and nothing beside,
And the other remembers the world is wide.
This is the way of it, sad earth over,
The heart that breaks is the heart of the lover,
And the other learns to forget.
‘For what is the use in endless sorrow?
Though the sun goes down, it will rise tomorrow;
And life is not over yet.’
Oh! I know this truth, if I know no other,
That passionate Love is Pain’s own mother.
Scheme | AABCCBDD CCXEEXFF AAGHHGAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111110 1101011010 11001001 11001001010 11001101010 11001001 110100111 00101100111 1110110110 111101110 1100101 11111011111 0111001111 1110101 11101001001 00100100111 1101111110 01111011010 00101101 1110101010 1011111101 0111101 11111111110 1100111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,001 |
Words | 196 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 244 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 121 Views
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