Analysis of Night In the City
Ellis Parker Butler 1869 (Muscatine) – 1937 (Williamsville)
The sluggish clouds hang low upon the town,
And from yon lamp in chilled and sodden rays
The feeble light gropes through the heavy mist
And dies, extinguished in the stagnant maze.
From moisty eaves the drops fall slowly down
To strike with leaden sound the walk below,
And in dark, murky pools upon the street
The water stands, as lacking life to flow.
With hopeless brain, oppressed and sad at heart,
Toil's careworn slave turns out his flickering light
And treads in dreams his dulling round again,
Where weary day succeeds to dismal night.
Scheme | ABXB ACXC XDXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 0101110101 0111010101 0101110101 0101000101 111011101 1111010101 0011010101 0101110111 1101010111 1111111001 0101110101 1101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 569 |
Words | 97 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 146 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 09, 2023
- 29 sec read
- 33 Views
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"Night In the City" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/11054/night-in-the-city>.
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