Analysis of What Shall We Do?
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Here now, for evermore, our lives must part.
My path leads there, and yours another way.
What shall we do with this fond love, dear heart?
It grows a heavier burden day by day.
Hide it? In all earth’s caverns, void and vast,
There is not room enough to hide it, dear;
Not even the mighty storehouse of the past
Could cover it, from our own eyes, I fear.
Drown it? Why, were the contents of each ocean
Merged into one great sea, too shallow then
Would be its waters, to sink this emotion
So deep it could not rise to life again.
Burn it? In all the furnace flames below,
It would not in a thousand years expire.
Nay! It would thrive, exult, expand and grow,
For from its very birth it fed on fire.
Starve it? Yes, yes, that is the only way.
Give it no more food, of glance, or word, or sigh,
No memories, even, of any bygone day;
No crumbs of vain regrets – so let it die.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GXGX BHBH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111010111 1111010101 1111111111 11010010111 1101110101 1111011111 1100101101 11011101111 11100101110 1011111101 11110111010 1111111101 1101010101 1110010101 1111010101 11110111110 1111110101 11111111111 11001011011 1111011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 886 |
Words | 175 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 131 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 69 Views
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"What Shall We Do?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10989/what-shall-we-do%3F>.
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