Analysis of A Birthday
Frederick George Scott 1861 (Montreal, Quebec) – 1944 (Quebec City, Quebec)
THE three Fates sat in a house of birth,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
Their eyes were bright, but not with mirth—
They have no love for the sons of earth—
And their lips were parched and gray.
5
Their gray locks hung from brow to chin,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
One held the distaff, and one did spin,
And one held shears in her fingers thin;
Three silent hags were they.
10
We saw not the thread which the sisters spun,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
Nor whether in white or in black begun,
But on her with the shears, that elder one,
Our eyes were fixed alway.
15
A thread, I ween, of tangled years,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
God stay her hand that holds the shears;
Our hopes are stronger than our fears
For the bud upon life's spray.
20
Scheme | aBaabc dBddbc eBeexc fBxfbc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011100111 11011101 11011111 111110111 0110101 1 11111111 11011101 11010111 011100101 110101 1 1110110101 11011101 1100110101 1101011101 101011 1 01111101 11011101 11011101 1011101101 1010111 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 777 |
Words | 159 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 141 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 141 Views
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"A Birthday" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14213/a-birthday>.
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