Analysis of How Old is my heart, how old?

Christopher John Brennan 1870 (Haymarket, New South Wales) – 1932 (Lewisham, New South Wales)



How old is my heart, how old, how old is my heart,
and did I ever go forth with song when the morn was new?
I seem to have trod on many ways: I seem to have left
I know not how many homes; and to leave each
was still to leave a portion of mine own heart,
of my old heart whose life I had spent to make that home
and all I had was regret, and a memory.

So I sit and muse in this wayside harbour and wait
till I hear the gathering cry of the ancient winds and again
I must up and out and leave the members of the hearth
to crumble silently into white ash and dust,
and see the road stretch bare and pale before me: again
my garment and my house shall be the enveloping winds
and my heart be fill'd wholly with their old pitiless cry.


Scheme AXXXAXX XBXXBXX
Poetic Form
Metre 111111111111 01110111110111 11111110111111 11111010111 11110101111 1111111111111 011110100100 111010111001 1110100110101001 1110101010101 110100011101 0101110101101 11001111001001 01111101111001
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 726
Words 157
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 7, 7
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 282
Words per stanza (avg) 78
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
162

Christopher John Brennan

Christopher John Brennan was an Australian poet, scholar and literary critic. more…

All Christopher John Brennan poems | Christopher John Brennan Books

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