Analysis of Roofs
Joyce Kilmer 1886 (New Brunswick) – 1918 (Seringes-et-Nesles)
(For Amelia Josephine Burr)
The road is wide and the stars are out
and the breath of the night is sweet,
And this is the time when wanderlust should seize upon my feet.
But I'm glad to turn from the open road and the starlight on my face,
And to leave the splendour of out-of-doors for a human dwelling place.
I never have seen a vagabond who really liked to roam
All up and down the streets of the world and not to have a home:
The tramp who slept in your barn last night and left at break of day
Will wander only until he finds another place to stay.
A gypsy-man will sleep in his cart with canvas overhead;
Or else he'll go into his tent when it is time for bed.
He'll sit on the grass and take his ease so long as the sun is high,
But when it is dark he wants a roof to keep away the sky.
If you call a gypsy a vagabond, I think you do him wrong,
For he never goes a-travelling but he takes his home along.
And the only reason a road is good, as every wanderer knows,
Is just because of the homes, the homes, the homes to which it goes.
They say that life is a highway and its milestones are the years,
And now and then there's a toll-gate where you buy your way with tears.
It's a rough road and a steep road and it stretches broad and far,
But at last it leads to a golden Town where golden Houses are.
Scheme | X XAABB CCDD EEFF GGHH XXII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 011100111 00110111 01101110110111 1111110101001111 0110111111010101 110110100110111 110101101011101 011101111011111 110100111010111 010111011110101 11110111111111 1110101111110111 111111101110101 1110100100111111 1110101001111101 001010011111001001 110110101011111 1111101011101 010110111111111 101100110110101 1111110101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,302 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 89 Views
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