Analysis of Mr. Housman's Message
Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)
O woe, woe,
People are born and die,
We also shall be dead pretty soon
Therefore let us act as if we were
dead already.
The bird sits on the hawthorn tree
But he dies also, presently.
Some lads get hung, and some get shot.
Woeful is this human lot.
Woe! woe, etcetera. . . .
London is a woeful place,
Shropshire is much pleasanter.
Then let us smile a little space
Upon fond nature's morbid grace.
Oh, Woe, woe, woe, etcetera. . . .
Scheme | XXXAB BBCCD EAEED |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111 101101 110111101 11111110 1010 0111011 11110100 11110111 1011101 111100 1010101 1111 11110101 01110101 11111100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 426 |
Words | 81 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 24 sec read
- 594 Views
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