Analysis of Before The Fair

Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)



'Lost,' 'lost,' the beeves and the bullocks,
The cattle men sell and buy,
Crowded upon the fair green,
Low to the lightless sky.

'Live,' 'live,' and 'Here,' 'here,' the blackbird
From the top of the bare ash-tree,
Over the acres whistles
With beak of yellow blee.

And climbing, turning, and climbing
His little stair of sound,
'Content,' 'content,' from the low hedge
The redbreast sings in a round.

And I who hear that hedge-song
Will fare with all the rest,
With thoughts of lust and labour,
And bargain in my breast.

The bare hedge bright with rain-drops
That have not fallen down,
The golden-crowded whin-bush
Nor know these things my own!


Scheme XAXA XXXX XBXB XCXC XXXX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (60%)
Etheree  (25%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11010010 0101101 1001011 11011 11011010 10110111 1001010 111101 01010010 110111 1011011 011001 0111111 111101 111101 010011 0111111 111101 0101011 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 632
Words 121
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 98
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
48

Padraic Colum

Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. more…

All Padraic Colum poems | Padraic Colum Books

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