Analysis of Let Us Be Drunk

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



Let us be drunk, and for a while forget,
Forget, and, ceasing even from regret,
Live without reason and despite of rhyme,
As in a dream preposterous and sublime,
Where place and hour and means for once are met.

Where is the use of effort? Love and debt
And disappointment have us in a net.
Let us break out, and taste the morning prime . . .
Let us be drunk.

In vain our little hour we strut and fret,
And mouth our wretched parts as for a bet:
We cannot please the tragicaster Time.
To gain the crystal sphere, the silver dime,
Where Sympathy sits dimpling on us yet,
Let us be drunk!


Scheme aabba aabC aabbaC
Poetic Form Rondeau 
Metre 1111010101 0101010101 1011000111 10010100001 11010011111 1101110101 001011001 1111010101 1111 011010101101 01101011101 1101011 1101010101 110011111 1111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 579
Words 113
Sentences 10
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 6
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 150
Words per stanza (avg) 38
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
52

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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