Analysis of If I Were Old
William Henry Ogilvie 1869 (Scotland) – 1963
If I were old, a broken man and blind,
and one should lead me to Mid-Eildon's crest,
and leave me there a little time to rest
sharing the hilltop with the Border wind,
the whispering heather, and the curlew's cry,
I know the blind dark could not be so deep,
so cruel and clinging, but that I
should see the sunlit curve of Cheviot's steep
rise blue and friendly on the distant sky!
There is no darkness - God! there cannot be -
so heavy as to curtain from my sight
the beauty of those Border slopes that lie
far south before me, and a love-found light
would shine upon the slow Tweed loitering by
with gift of song and silver to the sea!-
No dark can ever hide this dear loved land from me
Scheme | ABBACDCDC EFCFCEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010101 011111111 0111010111 100110101 0100100011 1101111111 110010111 11011111 1101010101 1111011101 1101110111 0101110111 1101100111 11010111001 1111010101 111101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 682 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 7 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 268 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 68 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 114 Views
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"If I Were Old" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40775/if-i-were-old>.
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