Analysis of Dead Boy
The little cousin is dead, by foul subtraction,
A green bough from Virginia's aged tree,
And none of the county kin like the transaction,
Nor some of the world of outer dark, like me.
A boy not beautiful, nor good, nor clever,
A black cloud full of storms too hot for keeping,
A sword beneath his mother's heart—yet never
Woman bewept her babe as this is weeping.
A pig with a pasty face, so I had said,
Squealing for cookies, kinned by poor pretense
With a noble house. But the little man quite dead,
I see the forbears' antique lineaments.
The elder men have strode by the box of death
To the wide flag porch, and muttering low send round
The bruit of the day. O friendly waste of breath!
Their hearts are hurt with a deep dynastic wound.
He was pale and little, the foolish neighbors say;
The first-fruits, saith the Preacher, the Lord hath taken;
But this was the old tree's late branch wrenched away,
Grieving the sapless limbs, the short and shaken.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IAIA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Pantoum Quatrain |
Metre | 010101111010 011101011 011010110010 11101110111 01110011110 01111111110 01011101110 1010111110 0110111111 1011011101 101011010111 1101011 01011110111 101110100111 01101110111 11111010101 111010010101 011101001110 11101111101 1001101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 946 |
Words | 177 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 149 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 101 Views
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"Dead Boy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22382/dead-boy>.
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