Analysis of Old Woman of the Roads

Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)



O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
To have a clock with weights and chains
And pendulum swinging up and down!
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled and white and blue and brown!
I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor,
And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue and speckled store!
I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself,
Sure of a bed and loth to leave
The ticking clock and the shining delph!
Och! but I'm weary of mist and dark,
And roads where there's never a house nor bush,
And tired I am of bog and road,
And the crying wind and the lonesome hush!
And I am praying to God on high,
And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house - a house of my own
Out of the wind's and the rain's way.


Scheme ABCBDEFEGHIHJFKFLMNOPGQG
Poetic Form
Metre 1110101 11010101 011101010 01110101 11011101 010010101 01011101 10010101 11110101 10010101 01011101 11010101 11110111 01010011 11010111 010100101 111101101 0111100111 010111101 0010100101 011101111 011101101 1010101111 11010011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 874
Words 178
Sentences 11
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 666
Words per stanza (avg) 176
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

54 sec read
179

Padraic Colum

Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. more…

All Padraic Colum poems | Padraic Colum Books

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