Analysis of The Ghosts' High Noon
William Schwenck Gilbert 1836 – 1911
When the night wind howls in the chimney cowls, and the bat in the
moonlight flies,
And inky clouds, like funeral shrouds, sail over the midnight skies -
When the footpads quail at the night-bird's wail, and black dogs
bay the moon,
Then is the spectres' holiday - then is the ghosts' high noon!
As the sob of the breeze sweeps over the trees, and the mists lie
low on the fen,
From grey tombstones are gathered the bones that once were women
and men,
And away they go, with a mop and a mow, to the revel that ends too
soon,
For cockcrow limits our holiday - the dead of the night's high
noon!
And then each ghost with his ladye-toast to their churchyard beds
take flight,
With a kiss, perhaps, on her lantern chaps, and a grisly grim "good
night";
Till the welcome knell of the midnight bell rings forth its
jolliest tune,
And ushers our next high holiday - the dead of the night's high
noon!
Scheme | xaaxbb cdxdxbcB xexexbcB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101110010100100 11 010111001110011 101110111011 101 110110110111 101101110010011 1101 1111100111010 01 001111010011010111 1 11101010011011 1 011111111111 11 1010110101001011 1 101011011111 1001 010101110011011 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 880 |
Words | 171 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 230 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 60 Views
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