Analysis of Bide A Wee

Louisa May Alcott 1832 – 1888



'The puir auld folk at home, ye mind,
Are frail and failing sair;
And weel I ken they'd miss me, lad,
Gin I come hame nae mair.
The grist is out, the times are hard,
The kine are only three;
I canna leave the auld folk now.
We'd better bide a wee.

'I fear me sair they're failing baith;
For when I sit apart,
They talk o' Heaven so earnestly,
It well nigh breaks my heart.
So, laddie, dinna urge me now,
It surely winna be;
I canna leave the auld folk yet.
We'd better bide a wee.'


Scheme xaxaxabC xdcdbcxC
Poetic Form
Metre 01111111 110101 01111111 111111 01110111 011101 1110111 110101 11111101 111101 111101100 111111 111111 11011 1110111 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 474
Words 101
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 178
Words per stanza (avg) 49
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
357

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist best known as author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. more…

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