Analysis of The Traveller
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Reply to Rudyard Kipling’s ‘He travels the fastest who travels alone.’
Who travels alone with his eye on the heights,
Though he laughs in the day time oft weeps on the nights;
For courage goes down at the set of the sun,
When the toil of the journey is all borne by one.
He speeds but to grief though full gaily he ride
Who travels alone without love at his side.
Who travels alone without lover of friend
But hurries from nothing, to naught at the end.
Though great be his winnings and high be his goal,
He is bankrupt in wisdom and beggared in soul.
Life’s one gift of value to him is denied
Who travels alone without love at his side.
It is easy enough in this world to make haste
If one live for that purpose – but think of the waste;
For life is a poem to leisurely read,
And the joy of the journey lies not in its speed.
Oh! vain his achievement and petty his pride
Who travels alone without love at his side.
Scheme | x aa bb cC dd ee cC ff xx cC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110111001011001 11001111101 111001111101 11011101101 101101011111 11111111011 11001011111 11001011011 11011011101 11111001111 11100100101 11111011101 11001011111 111001011111 111111011101 11101011001 001101011011 11101001011 11001011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 921 |
Words | 183 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 72 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 12, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 103 Views
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"The Traveller" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10914/the-traveller>.
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