Analysis of Wanderer's Ditty



Upon the road knotted with knee hollies green
and bitterest rot of the husbandman's vine,
where patch-thick in the trousers and bitterly green
I went stumbling for starflower and time.

"A bundle for your back and tread until noon,"
asks the husbandman, plucking his twine
by the road, south, tunneling fast in the trees
to take easterly his bushels for wine.

"I've a basket for starflower to catch in the hills
and time where starflowers grow,
I've a wicker mesh woven untimely for the hills
and go quickly where the wind in the earth sows."

"But knee holly is lovelier and butcher's broom hale,"
winks the husbandman crouched by the road
to twist red-berried sprigs from the bush
where he kneels
and dress sparsely his wheelbarrowed load.

"Butcher's broom or knee holly," his grin tailored ruche,
and slight as he whispers his wine
in the mouth of a cavernous well, slightly ruche,
in my ear laden wet with his brine,

'Til a white-petaled flourish withers pale on the hills
and summer towards the fall downward winds,
'Til the winds in the field are all shaken loose
and my basket all emptied of time.


Scheme ABAC XBDB EXEX XFGDF GBGB EXXC
Poetic Form
Metre 01011011101 010011011 111001001001 111001101 01011101011 1011011 10111001001 1110011011 10101111001 01111 1010110010101 01101010011 11101101011 1011101 11111101 111 0110111 101111011101 01111011 001101001101 011101111 101110101101 0100101101 10100111101 011011011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,108
Words 212
Sentences 5
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4
Lines Amount 25
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 146
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted by kemaeljo on October 20, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:04 min read
39

Kemael Johnson

I was born and raised in Detroit, where I wake each morning with a hope as bright as the sun. more…

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