Analysis of A Passage
John Boyle O'Reilly 1844 (Dowth) – 1890 (Boston)
THE world was made when a man was born;
He must taste for himself the forbidden springs,
He can never take warning from old-fashioned things;
He must fight as a boy, he must drink as a youth,
He must kiss, he must love, he must swear to the truth
Of the friend of his soul, he must laugh to scorn
The hint of deceit in a woman's eyes
That are clear as the wells of Paradise.
And so he goes on, till the world grows old,
Till his tongue has grown cautious, his heart, has grown cold,
Till the smile leaves his mouth, and the ring leaves his laugh,
And he shirks the bright headache you ask him to quaff;
He grows formal with men, and with women polite,
And distrustful of both when they're out of his sight;
Then he eats for his palate, and drinks for his head,
And loves for his pleasure,—and 'tis time he was dead!
Scheme | ABBCCADEFFGGHHII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011110111 11110101001 111011011101 111101111101 111111111101 10111111111 0110100101 111101110 0111110111 111111011111 101111001111 01101111111 111011011001 001011111111 111111001111 011110011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 820 |
Words | 163 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 627 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 160 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 32 Views
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"A Passage" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21974/a-passage>.
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