Analysis of Everyday Characters III - The Belle Of The Ball Room



Years, years ago, ere yet my dreams
Had been of being wise and witty;
Ere I had done wth writing themes,
Or yawn'd o'er this infernal Chitty; --
Years, years ago, while all my joy
Was in my fowling-piece and filly;
In short, while I was yet a boy,
I fell in love with Laura Lily.

I saw her at the County Ball;
There, when the sounds of flute and fiddle
Gave signal sweet in that old hall
Of hands across and down the middle,
Hers was the subtlest spell by far
Of all that set young hearts romancing:
She was our queen, our rose, our star;
And then she danced -- oh, Heaven, her dancing!

Dark was her hair, her hand was white;
Her voice was exquisitely tender;
Her eyes were full of liquid light;
I never saw a waist so slender;
Her every look, her every smile,
Shot right and left a score of arrows;
I though 'twas Venus from her isle,
And wonder'd where she left her sparrows.

Through sunny May, through sultry June,
I loved her with a love eternal;
I spoke her praises to the moon,
I wrote them to the Sunday Journal.
My mother laugh'd; I soon found out
That ancient ladies have no feeling:
My father frown'd, but how should gout
See any happiness in kneeling?

She was the daughter of a dean,
Rich, fat, and rather apoplectic;
She had one brother just thriteen,
Whose color was extremely hectic;
Her grandmother, for many a year
Had fed the parish with her bounty;
Her second cousin was a peer,
And lord-lieutenant of the county.

But titles and the three-per-cents,
And mortgages, and great relations,
And India bonds, and tithes and rents,
Oh! what are they to love's sensations?
Black eyes, fair forehead, clustering locks, --
Such wealth, such honors, Cupid chooses;
He cares as little for the stocks,
As Baron Rothschild for the Muses.

She sketched; the vale, the wood, the beach,
Grew lovelier from her pencil's shading;
She botanized; I envied each
Young blossom in her boudoir fading;
She warbled Händel; it was grand, --
She made the Catalina jealous;
She touch'd the organ; I could stand
For hours and hours to blow the bellows.

She kept an album, too, at home,
Well fill'd with all an album's glories;
Paintings of butterfiles, and Rome,
Patterns for trimming, Persian stories,
Soft songs to Julia's cockatoo,
Fierce odes to Famine and to Slaughter;
And autographs of Prince Lèboo,
And recipes for elder-water.

And she was flatter'd, worshipp'd, bored;
Her steps were watch'd, her dress was noted;
Her poodle-dog was quite adored,
Her saying were extremely quoted.
She laugh'd, and every heart was glad,
As if the taxes were abolish'd;
She frown'd, and every look was sad,
As if the Opera were demolished.

She smil'd on many just for fun, --
I knew that there was nothing in it;
I was the first, the only one
Her heart had thought of for a minute.
I knew it, for she told me so,
In phrase which was divinely moulded;
She wrote a charming hand, and oh,
How sweetly all her notes were folded!

Our love was like most other loves, ---
A little glow, a little shiver,
A rosebud and a pair of gloves,
And 'Fly Not Yet,' upon the river;
Some jealousy of some one's heir,
Some hopes of dying broken-hearted;
A miniature, a lock of hair,
The usual vows -- and then we parted.

We parted -- months and years roll'd by;
We met again four summers after;
Our parting was all sob and sigh --
Our meeting was all mirth and laughter;
For in my heart's most secret cell,
There had been many other lodgers;
And she was not the ball-room's belle,
But only -- Mrs. Something Rogers.


Scheme ABABCBCB DEDEFGFG HIHIJKJK LELEMGMG XNLNOBOB PQPQRSRS TGTGUXUK VWVWXIXI YZYX1 2 1 2 3 X3 X4 B4 Z 5 I5 I6 Z6 Z 7 I7 I8 A8 X
Poetic Form
Metre 11011111 111101010 11111101 1110101010 11011111 10111010 01111101 110111010 11010101 110111010 11010111 110101010 0101111 111111010 11101101101 0111110010 11010111 01110010 01011101 110101110 0100101001 110101110 11110101 010111010 11011101 110101010 11010101 11110110 11011111 110101110 11011111 110100010 11010101 11010010 1111011 110101010 01011001 110101010 01010101 010101010 11000111 010001010 010010101 111111010 111101001 111101010 11110101 11011010 11010101 1110110 111101 11000110 11011111 11001010 11010111 11001011010 11110111 111111010 101101 101101010 1111010 111100110 0101111 010011010 01110101 010101110 01011101 010001010 110100111 110100010 110100111 110100010 11110111 111111001 11010101 011111010 11111111 01110101 11010101 110101010 101111101 010101010 01000111 011101010 11001111 111101010 01000111 0100101110 11010111 110111010 101011101 1010111010 10111101 11110101 01110111 110101010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 3,483
Words 637
Sentences 19
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 96
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 221
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 09, 2023

3:17 min read
56

Winthrop Mackworth Praed

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