Analysis of Suicide
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
Staring corpselike at the ceiling,
See his harsh, unrazored features,
Ghastly brown against the pillow,
And his throat-so strangely bandaged!
Lack of work and lack of victuals,
A debauch of smuggled whisky,
And his children in the workhouse
Made the world so black a riddle
That he plunged for a solution;
And, although his knife was edgeless,
He was sinking fast towards one,
When they came, and found, and saved him.
Stupid now with shame and sorrow,
In the night I hear him sobbing.
But sometimes he talks a little.
He has told me all his troubles.
In his broad face, tanned and bloodless,
White and wild his eyeballs glisten;
And his smile, occult and tragic,
Yet so slavish, makes you shudder!
Scheme | ABCX BXBD EBEX CADX XEXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (35%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011010 111110 10101010 01111010 1110111 0111010 0110001 10111010 11110010 011111 11101011 11101011 10111010 00111110 10111010 11111110 01111010 1011110 01101010 11101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 687 |
Words | 124 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 314 Views
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"Suicide" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40545/suicide>.
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