Analysis of At Thirty-Five
Three score and ten, the psalmist saith,
And half my course is well-nigh run;
I've had my flout at dusty death,
I've had my whack of feast and fun.
I've mocked at those who prate and preach;
I've laughed with any man alive;
But now with sobered heart I reach
The Great Divide of Thirty-five.
And looking back I must confess
I've little cause to feel elate.
I've played the mummer more or less;
I fumbled fortune, flouted fate.
I've vastly dreamed and little done;
I've idly watched my brothers strive:
Oh, I have loitered in the sun
By primrose paths to Thirty-five!
And those who matched me in the race,
Well, some are out and trampled down;
The others jog with sober pace;
Yet one wins delicate renown.
O midnight feast and famished dawn!
O gay, hard life, with hope alive!
O golden youth, forever gone,
How sweet you seem at Thirty-five!
Each of our lives is just a book
As absolute as Holy Writ;
We humbly read, and may not look
Ahead, nor change one word of it.
And here are joys and here are pains;
And here we fail and here we thrive;
O wondrous volume! what remains
When we reach chapter Thirty-five?
The very best, I dare to hope,
Ere Fate writes Finis to the tome;
A wiser head, a wider scope,
And for the gipsy heart, a home;
A songful home, with loved ones near,
With joy, with sunshine all alive:
Watch me grow younger every year --
Old Age! thy name is Thirty-five!
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFBDBD GHGHIDID JKJKLDLD MNMNODOD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (35%) |
Metre | 1101011 01111111 11111101 11111101 11111101 11110101 11110111 01011101 01011101 11011101 1101111 11010101 11010101 11011101 1111001 1111101 01111001 11110101 01011101 11110001 1110101 11111101 11010101 11111101 111011101 1101101 11010111 01111111 01110111 01110111 11010101 11110101 01011111 1111101 01010101 0101101 0111111 1111101 111101001 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,348 |
Words | 261 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 211 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 141 Views
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"At Thirty-Five" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31993/at-thirty-five>.
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