Analysis of The Children's Hour
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupation,
That is know as the children's hour.
I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.
From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.
A whisper and then a silence:
Yet I know by their merry eyes,
They are plotting and planning together,
To take me by surprise.
A sudden rush from the stairway,
A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!
They climb up into my turret
O'er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me,
They seem to be everywhere.
They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!
Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
Is not a match for you all?
I have you fast in my fortress
And will not let you depart,
But put you down in the dungeon
In the round-tower of my heart.
And there will I keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away!
Scheme | ABCB DEXE AFXF XGBG HIXI XFDF XJCJ AIXI XKCK BHCH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (90%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 0101001 1011010110 101001010 111101010 110010011 0101101 011011110 010101 111011001 0100111 110010010 0101101 01001010 11111101 1110010010 111101 0101101 0101101 1111010 1101101 11101110 100101111 1111011011 111110 110101110 1101101 111101011 01110101 1111111 0111101 1111111 1101111 11110110 0111101 11110010 00110111 011111010 1010001 101110110 0100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,266 |
Words | 251 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 320 Views
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