Analysis of The Old Wooden Cradle
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Good-bye to the cradle, the dear wooden cradle
The rude hand of Progress has thrust it aside.
No more to its motion o’er sleep’s fairy ocean,
Our play-weary wayfarers peacefully glide.
No more by the rhythm of slow-moving rocker,
Their sweet dreamy fancies are fostered and fed;
No more to low singing the cradle goes swinging –
The child of this era is put into bed.
Good-bye to the cradle, the dear wooden cradle,
It lent to the twilight a strange, subtle charm;
When bees left the clover, when play-time was over,
How safe seemed this shelter from danger or harm.
How soft seemed the pillow, how distant the ceiling,
How weird were the voices that whispered around,
What dreams would come flocking, as rocking and rocking,
We floated away into slumber profound.
Good-bye to the cradle, the old wooden cradle,
The babe of to-day does not know it by sight.
When day leaves the border, with system and order,
The child goes to bed and we put out the light.
I bow to Progression and ask no concession,
Though strewn be her pathway with wrecks of the past;
So off wit old lumber, that sweet ark of slumber,
The old wooden cradle, is ruthlessly cast.
Scheme | Abcb defe Agdg fhfh aidi cjdj |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111010011010 0111111101 111110111010 1011011001 111010111010 11101011001 111110010110 01111011011 111010011010 1110101101 111010111110 11111011011 111010110010 11001011001 111110110010 11001011001 111010011010 01111111111 111010110010 01111011101 111010011010 1110111101 111110111110 01101011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,164 |
Words | 208 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 150 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 49 Views
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