Analysis of The Past Was Goodly Once
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
The Past was goodly once, and yet, when all is said,
The best of it we know is that it's done and dead.
Dwindled and faded quite, perished beyond recall,
Nothing is left at last of what one time was all.
Coming back like a ghost, staring and lingering on,
Never a word it speaks but proves it dead and gone.
Duty and work and joy--these things it cannot give;
And the Present is life, and life is good to live.
Let it lie where it fell, far from the living sun,
The Past that, goodly once, is gone and dead and done.
Scheme | AA BB XX XX CC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Couplet |
Metre | 011101011111 011111111101 10010110011 101111111111 1011011001001 100111111101 100101111101 001011011111 111111110101 011101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 515 |
Words | 105 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 10 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 79 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 31 sec read
- 83 Views
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