Analysis of Son
He hurried away, young heart of joy, under our Devon sky!
And I watched him go, my beautiful boy, and a weary woman was I.
For my hair is grey, and his was gold; he'd the best of his life to live;
And I'd loved him so, and I'm old, I'm old; and he's all I had to give.
Ah yes, he was proud and swift and gay, but oh how my eyes were dim!
With the sun in his heart he went away, but he took the sun with him.
For look! How the leaves are falling now, and the winter won't be long. . . .
Oh boy, my boy with the sunny brow, and the lips of love and of song!
How we used to sit at the day's sweet end, we two by the firelight's gleam,
And we'd drift to the Valley of Let's Pretend, on the beautiful river of Dream.
Oh dear little heart! All wealth untold would I gladly, gladly pay
Could I just for a moment closely hold that golden head to my grey.
For I gaze in the fire, and I'm seeing there a child, and he waves to me;
And I run and I hold him up in the air, and he laughs and shouts with glee;
A little bundle of love and mirth, crying: "Come, Mumsie dear!"
Ah me! If he called from the ends of the earth I know that my heart would hear.
Yet the thought comes thrilling through all my pain: how worthier could he die?
Yea, a loss like that is a glorious gain, and pitiful proud am I.
For Peace must be bought with blood and tears, and the boys of our hearts must pay;
And so in our joy of the after-years, let us bless them every day.
And though I know there's a hasty grave with a poor little cross at its head,
And the gold of his youth he so gladly gave, yet to me he'll never be dead.
And the sun in my Devon lane will be gay, and my boy will be with me still,
So I'm finding the heart to smile and say: "Oh God, if it be Thy Will!"
Scheme | AAXX BBCC DDEE FFXX AAEE GGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 1100111111010101 011111100100101011 11111011110111111 01111011110111111 1111101011111101 10101111011110111 1110111010010111 11111010100111011 1111110111111011 01110101101101001011 1110111011110101 11110101011101111 1110010011010101111 011011110010110111 01010110110111 111111011011111111 10111011111100111 101111010010100111 111111101001110111 0101011010111111001 011110101101101111 0011111110111111011 0010110111101111111 11100111011111111 |
Characters | 1,724 |
Words | 372 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 54 |
Words per line (avg) | 15 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 77 Views
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"Son" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32444/son>.
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