Analysis of An Answer
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
If all the year was summer-time,
And all the aim of life
Was just to lilt on like a rhyme –
Then I would be your wife.
If all the days were August days,
And crowned with golden weather,
How happy then through green-clad ways
We two could stray together!
If all the nights were moonlit nights,
And we had naught to do
But just to sit and plan delights,
Then I would be with you.
If life was all a summer fete,
Its soberest pace the “glide, ”
Then I would choose you for my mate,
And keep you at my side.
But winter makes full half the year,
And labour half of life,
And all the laughter and good cheer
Gives place to wearing strife.
Days will grow cold, and moons wax old,
And then a heart that’s true
Is better far than grace or gold –
And so, my love, adieu!
I cannot wed with you.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IBIB JFJFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 010111 11111101 111111 11010101 0111010 11011111 1111010 1101011 011111 11110101 111111 11110101 11101 11111111 011111 11011101 01111 01010011 111101 11110111 010111 11011111 011101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 801 |
Words | 161 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 92 Views
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"An Answer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10517/an-answer>.
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