Analysis of Homesick
Alice Guerin Crist 1876 (Clare Castle) – 1941 (Toowoomba)
I’ve lit the Christmas candle,
As we used to long ago
When it shone through cabin windows
On Holly-hedge and snow.
In this fine new house they’ve built me
That is furnished rich and fair-
But I’m hearing now the breakers rolling round the cliffs of Moher,
And my heart is aching, aching for a breath of Irish air.
The wren boys on St. Stephen’s Day.
Went singin’ up and down
With their poor dead wren and thorn bush,
I heard them through the town.
But to-night down lighted city streets,
I hear the distant band,
And when’er they play ‘our own’ hymns or tune of dear old Ireland,
The poor old foolish heart of me is in another land.
‘Twas a lonely hillside chapel,
Where we tramped to midnight Mass,
With the flaring lights we carried
Throwing shadows on the grass.
But to-night my boy will drive me
In his grand new limousine,
And he’ll wrap my furs around me, proudly caring for his Mother,
And I’ll ride to the Cathedral just as grand as any queen.
Ah! No, I’m not repinin’,
And I love this wide new land,
And I’m proud to see the childer
Growin’ prosperous and grand,
But roots strike deep in Irish soil,
Old memories are sweet,
And to-night my heart is yearnin’ for the cabin I was born in,
And I smell the reek of turf-smoke driftin’ up the city streets.
Scheme | ABXBCDED XFXFGHXH AIXICJEJ FHDHXXXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010 1111101 11111010 110101 01111111 1110101 1110101010101110 011110101011101 01111101 11101 11111011 111101 111110101 110101 0111101111111100 01110111100101 1010110 111111 10101110 101101 11111111 011110 0111101110101110 011100101111101 11111 0111111 0111101 110001 11110101 110011 011111110101110 01101111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,271 |
Words | 239 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 243 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 116 Views
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"Homesick" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1509/homesick>.
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