Analysis of Double Ballad Of Life And Death
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
Fools may pine, and sots may swill,
Cynics gibe, and prophets rail,
Moralists may scourge and drill,
Preachers prose, and fainthearts quail.
Let them whine, or threat, or wail!
Till the touch of Circumstance
Down to darkness sink the scale,
Fate’s a fiddler, Life’s a dance.
What if skies be wan and chill?
What if winds be harsh and stale?
Presently the east will thrill,
And the sad and shrunken sail
Bellying with a kindly gale,
Bear you sunwards, while your chance
Sends you back the hopeful hail: -
‘Fate’s a fiddler, Life’s a dance.’
Idle shot or coming bill,
Hapless love or broken bail,
Gulp it (never chew your pill!)
And if Burgundy should fail,
Try the humbler pot of ail!
Over all is heaven’s expanse.
Gold’s to find among the shale,
Fate’s a fiddler, Life’s a dance.
Scheme | ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Ballade |
Metre | 1110111 1010101 1001101 101011 1111111 101110 1110101 10100101 1111101 1111101 1000111 0010101 110101 111111 1110101 10100101 1011101 1011101 1110111 0110011 10100111 10111001 1110101 10100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 784 |
Words | 143 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 199 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 43 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Double Ballad Of Life And Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40463/double-ballad-of-life-and-death>.
Discuss this William Ernest Henley poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In