Analysis of The Year

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year.


Scheme AA BB CC DD EE FF
Poetic Form Couplet 
Metre 11110111 11110101 01110111 11111111 11110101 11110101 11010111 11110111 11111111 1110111101 11111111 01010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 441
Words 93
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 54
Words per stanza (avg) 15
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

28 sec read
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Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

All Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems | Ella Wheeler Wilcox Books

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