Analysis of There Pass the Careless People



There pass the careless people
That call their souls their own:
Here by the road I loiter,
How idle and alone.

Ah, past the plunge of plummet,
In seas I cannot sound,
My heart and soul and senses,
World without end, are drowned.

His folly has not fellow
Beneath the blue of day
That gives to man or woman
His heart and soul away.

There flowers no balm to sain him
From east of earth to west
That's lost for everlasting
The heart out of his breast.

Here by the labouring highway
With empty hands I stroll:
Sea-deep, till doomsday morning,
Lie lost my heart and soul.


Scheme XAXA XBXB XCXC XDED CFEF
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1101010 111111 1101110 110001 1101110 011101 1101010 101111 1101110 010111 1111110 110101 11011111 111111 111010 011111 11011 110111 111110 111101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 573
Words 109
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 88
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

33 sec read
81

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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