Analysis of A Northern Suburb
Nature selects the longest way,
And winds about in tortuous grooves;
A thousand years the oaks decay;
The wrinkled glacier hardly moves.
But here the whetted fangs of change
Daily devour the old demesne –
The busy farm, the quiet grange,
The wayside inn, the village green.
In gaudy yellow brick and red,
With rooting pipes, like creepers rank,
The shoddy terraces o'erspread
Meadow, and garth, and daisied bank.
With shelves for rooms the houses crowd,
Like draughty cupboards in a row –
Ice-chests when wintry winds are loud,
Ovens when summer breezes blow.
Roused by the fee'd policeman's knock,
And sad that day should come again,
Under the stars the workmen flock
In haste to reach the workmen's train.
For here dwell those who must fulfil
Dull tasks in uncongenial spheres,
Who toil through dread of coming ill,
And not with hope of happier years –
The lowly folk who scarcely dare
Conceive themselves perhaps misplaced,
Whose prize for unremitting care
Is only not to be disgraced
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IDID JKJK LMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 10010101 010101001 01010101 01010101 11010111 10010011 01010101 0110101 01010101 1101111 0101001 101011 11110101 1110001 11110111 10110101 11010101 01111101 10010101 01110101 1111111 11011 11111101 011111001 01011101 01010101 1110101 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,016 |
Words | 170 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 113 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 100 Views
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"A Northern Suburb" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22430/a-northern-suburb>.
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