Analysis of An English Girl
William Schwenck Gilbert 1836 – 1911
A wonderful joy our eyes to bless,
In her magnificent comeliness,
Is an English girl of eleven stone two,
And five foot ten in her dancing shoe!
She follows the hounds, and on she pounds -
The "field" tails off and the muffs diminish -
Over the hedges and brooks she bounds -
Straight as a crow, from find to finish.
At cricket, her kin will lose or win -
She and her maids, on grass and clover,
Eleven maids out - eleven maids in -
(And perhaps an occasional "maiden over").
Go search the world and search the sea,
Then come you home and sing with me
There's no such gold and no such pearl
As a bright and beautiful English girl!
With a ten-mile spin she stretches her limbs,
She golfs, she punts, she rows, she swims -
She plays, she sings, she dances, too,
From ten or eleven till all is blue!
At ball or drum, till small hours come
(Chaperon's fan conceals her yawning),
She'll waltz away like a teetotum,
And never go home till daylight's dawning.
Lawn tennis may share her favours fair -
Her eyes a-dance and her cheeks a-glowing -
Down comes her hair, but what does she care?
It's all her own and it's worth the showing!
Go search the world and search the sea,
Then come you home and sing with me
There's no such gold and no such pearl
As a bright and beautiful English girl!
Her soul is sweet as the ocean air,
For prudery knows no haven there;
To find mock-modesty, please apply
To the conscious blush and the downcast eye.
Rich in the things contentment brings,
In every pure enjoyment wealthy,
Blithe as a beautiful bird she sings,
For body and mind are hale and healthy.
Her eyes they thrill with right goodwill -
Her heart is light as a floating feather -
As pure and bright as the mountain rill
That leaps and laughs in the Highland heather!
Go search the world and search the sea,
Then come you home and sing with me
There's no such gold and no such pearl
As a bright and beautiful English girl!
Scheme | aabbcdcdefefGGHH iibbjkjklklkGGHH llmmngngofofGGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0100110111 0001001 11101101011 011100101 110010111 0111001010 100100111 110111110 110011111 100111010 0101101010 001101001010 11010101 11110111 11110111 1010100101 1011111001 11111111 11111101 1110101111 111111101 1101010 1101101 010111110 11011011 0101001010 110111111 1101011010 11010101 11110111 11110111 1010100101 011110101 110011101 111100101 101010011 10010101 0100101010 110100111 1100111010 01111111 0111101010 110110101 1101001010 11010101 11110111 11110111 1010100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,871 |
Words | 365 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 16, 16 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 492 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 121 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:52 min read
- 56 Views
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