Analysis of Ballade Of His Books
Andrew Lang 1844 (Selkirk, Scottish Borders) – 1912 (Banchory)
Here stand my books, line upon line
They reach the roof, and row by row,
They speak of faded tastes of mine,
And things I did, but do not, know:
Old school books, useless long ago,
Old Logics, where the spirit, railed in,
Could scarcely answer 'yes' or 'no' -
The many things I've tried and failed in!
Here's Villon, in morocco fine,
(The Poet starved, in mud and snow,)
Glatigny does not crave to dine,
And Rene's tears forget to flow.
And here's a work by Mrs. Crowe,
With hosts of ghosts and bogies jailed in;
Ah, all my ghosts have gone below -
The many things I've tried and failed in!
He's touched, this mouldy Greek divine,
The Princess D'Este's hand of snow;
And here the arms of D'Hoym shine,
And there's a tear-bestained Rousseau:
Here's Carlyle shrieking 'woe on woe'
(The first edition, this, he wailed in);
I once believed in him--but oh,
The many things I've tried and failed in!
Prince, tastes may differ; mine and thine
Quite other balances are scaled in;
May you succeed, though I repine -
'The many things I've tried and failed in!'
Scheme | ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC acaC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111011 11010111 11110111 01111111 11110101 11101010 11010111 010111010 1100101 01010101 111111 0110111 01011101 11110110 11111101 010111010 11110101 0101111 0101111 0101101 1110111 010101110 11010111 010111010 11110101 110100110 1101111 010111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,037 |
Words | 197 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 197 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 60 Views
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"Ballade Of His Books" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2756/ballade-of-his-books>.
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