Analysis of When the Lad for Longing Sighs
Alfred Edward Housman 1859 – 1936
When the lad for longing sighs,
Mute and dull of cheer and pale,
If at death's own door he lies,
Maiden, you can heal his ail.
Lovers' ills are all to buy:
The wan look, the hollow tone,
The hung head, the sunken eye,
You can have them for your own.
Buy them, buy them: eve and morn
Lovers' ills are all to sell.
Then you can lie down forlorn;
But the lover will be well.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Traditional rhyme Quatrain |
Metre | 1011101 1011101 1111111 1011111 1011111 0110101 0110101 1111111 1111101 1011111 1111101 1010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 379 |
Words | 78 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 23 sec read
- 383 Views
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"When the Lad for Longing Sighs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/944/when-the-lad-for-longing-sighs>.
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