Analysis of On Moonlit Heath and Lonesome Bank
Alfred Edward Housman 1859 – 1936
On moonlit heath and lonesome bank
The sheep beside me graze;
And yon the gallows used to clank
Fast by the four cross ways.
A careless shepherd once would keep
The flocks by moonlight there, *
And high amongst the glimmering sheep
The dead man stood on air.
They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail:
The whistles blow forlorn,
And trains all night groan on the rail
To men that die at morn.
There sleeps in Shrewsbury jail to-night,
Or wakes, as may betide,
A better lad, if things went right,
Than most that sleep outside.
And naked to the hangman's noose
The morning clocks will ring
A neck God made for other use
Than strangling in a string.
And sharp the link of life will snap,
And dead on air will stand
Heels that held up as straight a chap
As treads upon the land.
So here I'll watch the night and wait
To see the morning shine,
When he will hear the stroke of eight
And not the stroke of nine;
And wish my friend as sound a sleep
As lads' I did not know,
That shepherded the moonlit sheep
A hundred years ago.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN COCO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1110101 010111 01010111 110111 01010111 01111 010101001 011111 11110101 010101 01111101 111111 11010111 111101 01011111 111111 0101011 010111 01111101 1100001 01011111 011111 11111101 110101 11110101 110101 11110111 010111 01111101 111111 1100011 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,022 |
Words | 198 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 139 Views
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"On Moonlit Heath and Lonesome Bank" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/902/on-moonlit-heath-and-lonesome-bank>.
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