Analysis of John Bunny, Motion Picture Comedian
Vachel Lindsay 1879 (Springfield) – 1931 (Springfield)
In which he is remembered in similitude, by reference to Yorick,
the king’s jester, who died when Hamlet and Ophelia were children.
Yorick is dead. Boy Hamlet walks forlorn
Beneath the battlements of Elsinore.
Where are those oddities and capers now
That used to “set the table on a roar”?
And do his bauble-bells beyond the clouds
Ring out, and shake with mirth the planets bright?
No doubt he brings the blessed dead good cheer,
But silence broods on Elsinore tonight.
That little elf, Ophelia, eight years old,
Upon her battered doll’s staunch bosom weeps.
(”O best of men, that wove glad fairy-tales.”)
With tear-burned face, at last the darling sleeps.
Hamlet himself could not give cheer or help,
Though firm and brave, with his boy-face controlled.
For every game they started out to play
Yorick invented, in the days of old.
The times are out of joint! O cursed spite!
The noble jester Yorick comes no more.
And Hamlet hides his tears in boyish pride
By some lone turret-stair of Elsinore.
Scheme | XX XAXA XBXB CDXD XCXC BAXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011101001110011 0110111100010010 111110101 010100110 1111000101 1111010101 0111010101 1101110101 111101111 110111001 1101010111 0101011101 1111111101 1111110101 1001111111 1101111101 11001110111 101000111 011111111 010101111 0101110101 111101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 996 |
Words | 175 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 131 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 158 Views
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"John Bunny, Motion Picture Comedian" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37303/john-bunny%2C-motion-picture-comedian>.
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