Analysis of I Hoed and Trenched and Weeded



I hoed and trenched and weeded,
And took the flowers to fair:
I brought them home unheeded;
The hue was not the wear.

So up and down I sow them
For lads like me to find,
When I shall lie below them,
A dead man out of mind.

Some seed the birds devour,
And some the season mars,
But here and there will flower,
The solitary stars,

And fields will yearly bear them
As light-leaved spring comes on,
And luckless lads will wear them
When I am dead and gone.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF CXCX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 1101010 0101011 1111010 011101 1101111 111111 1111011 011111 1101010 010101 1101110 01001 0111011 111111 0101111 111101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 460
Words 92
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 87
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 10, 2023

27 sec read
388

Alfred Edward Housman

Alfred Edward Housman, usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad.  more…

All Alfred Edward Housman poems | Alfred Edward Housman Books

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