Analysis of Worth While
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is one who will smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
It is easy enough to be prudent,
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it's only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honor of earth
Is the one that resists desire.
By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world's highway is cumbered to-day;
They make up the sum of life.
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile,
It is these that are worth the homage on earth
For we find them but once in a while.
Scheme | ABCBXXDX AEXEXFDF GHEHGCDC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110011110 1111101 1011111111 110111 101101110 0111101 00111101011 1011111 1110011110 1101111 1011011111 1101101 1110010010 01111110 00111101011 101101010 101001010 1111101 0111111 1110111 101011010 001011001 11111101011 111111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 887 |
Words | 177 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 227 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 06, 2023
- 53 sec read
- 150 Views
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