Analysis of Interior

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



The gaunt brown walls
Look infinite in their decent meanness.
There is nothing of home in the noisy kettle,
The fulsome fire.

The atmosphere
Suggests the trail of a ghostly druggist.
Dressings and lint on the long, lean table -
Whom are they for?

The patients yawn,
Or lie as in training for shroud and coffin.
A nurse in the corridor scolds and wrangles.
It's grim and strange.

Far footfalls clank.
The bad burn waits with his head unbandaged.
My neighbour chokes in the clutch of chloral . . .
O, a gruesome world!


Scheme XXAX XBAX XXXX XBAX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (25%)
Metre 0111 1100011010 111011001010 01010 010 0101101010 1001101110 1111 0101 11101011010 01001001010 1101 111 01111111 11100111 10101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 509
Words 93
Sentences 14
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 101
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

28 sec read
91

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

All William Ernest Henley poems | William Ernest Henley Books

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