Analysis of To the Terrestrial Globe

William Schwenck Gilbert 1836 – 1911



Roll on, thou ball, roll on!
Through pathless realms of Space
Roll on!
What though I'm in a sorry case?
What though I cannot meet my bills?
What though I suffer toothache's ills?
What though I swallow countless pills?
Never YOU mind!
Roll on!

Roll on, thou ball, roll on!
Through seas of inky air
Roll on!
It's true I've got no shirts to wear;
It's true my butcher's bill is due;
It's true my prospects all look blue -
But don't let that unsettle you!
Never YOU mind!
Roll on!

[IT ROLLS ON.]


Scheme AbAbcccDA AeAefffDA a
Poetic Form
Metre 111111 11111 11 11100101 11110111 1111011 11110101 1011 11 111111 111101 11 11111111 11110111 11110111 11110101 1011 11 111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 481
Words 97
Sentences 15
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 1
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

31 sec read
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William Schwenck Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist librettist poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan of which the most famous include HMS Pinafore The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre The Mikado These as well as most of their other Savoy operas continue to be performed regularly throughout the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies repertory companies schools and community theatre groups Lines from these works have become part of the English language such as short sharp shock What never Well hardly ever and Let the punishment fit the crime Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads an extensive collection of light verse accompanied by his own comical drawings His creative output included over 75 plays and libretti numerous stories poems lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Gilberts lyrical facility and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since Source - Wikipedia more…

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