Analysis of The Picture on the Wall
Henry Clay Work 1832 (Middletown, Connecticut) – 1884 (Hartford, Connecticut)
'Tis noon of night; the sable clouds,
Hang weeping in the sky;
Alone I sit, where fancies flit
Like spectral shadows by.
Me thinks I see familiar forms,
And on before them all--
So fair, so calm, so wondrous like, wondrous like
The picture on the wall.
Among the brave and loyal,
How many lov'd ones fall!
Whose friends bereft,
Have only left, only left
A picture on the wall.
I hear the press of eager feet,
Upon my parlor floor;
A moment, and my willing arms
Enclasp my boy once more.
I feel his warm breath on my cheek,
But when his name I call
A shadowy finger points to me, points me to
His picture on the wall.
The moon's full radiance struggles through,
And lights my room once more;
And thus shall heav'n O heart of mine,
Thy seeming loss restore.
Its light shall gild the present gloom,
And sweeter spells enthral,
Than that which binds me to this sweet, to this sweet
True picture on the wall.
Scheme | XAXAXBXB XBCCB DEXEXBFB FEXEXBDB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 110001 01111101 1111 11110101 010111 11111101101 010101 0101010 110111 1101 1101101 010101 11011101 011101 01001101 11111 11111111 111111 010010111111 110101 011100101 011111 01111111 110101 11110101 010101 11111111111 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 883 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 5, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 174 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 98 Views
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