Analysis of Loitering with a Vacant Eye
Alfred Edward Housman 1859 – 1936
Loitering with a vacant eye
Along the Grecian gallery,
And brooding on my heavy ill,
I met a statue standing still.
Still in marble stone stood he,
And stedfastly he looked at me.
"Well met," I thought the look would say,
"We both were fashioned far away;
We neither knew, when we were young,
These Londoners we live among."
Still he stood and eyed me hard,
An earnest and a grave regard:
"What, lad, drooping with your lot?
I too would be where I am not.
I too survey that endless line
Of men whose thoughts are not as mine.
Years, ere you stood up from rest,
On my neck the collar prest;
Years, when you lay down your ill,
I shall stand and bear it still.
Courage, lad, 'tis not for long:
Stand, quit you like stone, be strong."
So I thought his look would say;
And light on me my trouble lay,
And I stept out in flesh and bone
Manful like the man of stone.
Scheme | XABBAACCDD EEFFGGHHBBIICCJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10010101 01010100 01011101 1101101 1010111 011111 11110111 11010101 11011101 11001101 1110111 11000101 1110111 11111111 11011101 11111111 1111111 1110101 1111111 1110111 1011111 1111111 1111111 01111101 01110101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 867 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 16 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 326 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 84 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 61 Views
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"Loitering with a Vacant Eye" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/891/loitering-with-a-vacant-eye>.
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