Analysis of The Ballad Of The Foxhunter
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
'Lay me in a cushioned chair;
Carry me, ye four,
With cushions here and cushions there,
To see the world once more.
'To stable and to kennel go;
Bring what is there to bring;
Lead my Lollard to and fro,
Or gently in a ring.
'Put the chair upon the grass:
Bring Rody and his hounds,
That I may contented pass
From these earthly bounds.'
His eyelids droop, his head falls low,
His old eyes cloud with dreams;
The sun upon all things that grow
Falls in sleepy streams.
Brown Lollard treads upon the lawn,
And to the armchair goes,
And now the old man's dreams are gone,
He smooths the long brown nose.
And now moves many a pleasant tongue
Upon his wasted hands,
For leading aged hounds and young
The huntsman near him stands.
'Huntsmam Rody, blow the horn,
Make the hills reply.'
The huntsman loosens on the morn
A gay wandering cry.
Fire is in the old man's eyes,
His fingers move and sway,
And when the wandering music dies
They hear him feebly say,
'Huntsman Rody, blow the horn,
Make the hills reply.'
'I cannot blow upon my horn,
I can but weep and sigh.'
Servants round his cushioned place
Are with new sorrow wrung;
Hounds are gazing on his face,
Aged hounds and young.
One blind hound only lies apart
On the sun-smitten grass;
He holds deep commune with his heart:
The moments pass and pass:
The blind hound with a mournful din
Lifts slow his wintry head;
The servants bear the body in;
The hounds wail for the dead.
Scheme | abab cdcd efef cgcg hihi jkjk lMlm nono lMlm pjpj qeqe rsrs |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1100101 10111 11010101 110111 11001101 111111 1110101 110001 1010101 110011 1110101 11101 1111111 111111 01011111 10101 11010101 01011 01011111 110111 011100101 011101 1101101 010111 110101 10101 01010101 011001 10100111 110101 010100101 111101 1010101 10101 11010111 111101 1011101 111101 1110111 1101 11110101 101101 11110111 010101 01110101 111101 01010100 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,382 |
Words | 271 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 128 Views
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"The Ballad Of The Foxhunter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39445/the-ballad-of-the-foxhunter>.
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