Analysis of Doing Nothing
Roderic Quinn 1867 (Surry Hills, New South Wales) – 1949 (Darlinghurst, New South Wales)
WITH the sorrow on me
Neighbours come and go —
Think me vain and foolish
Nursing up my woe.
With the grief-blade in me
Keen and chill as steel —
Can I laugh like others,
Feel the joy they feel?
Since he died and left me
Things don't matter much,
Life, that danced and capered,
Limps upon a crutch.
Night and day I ponder,
Drawing weary breath —
Since to love we're moulded,
Why should there be death?
Night and day I'm asking
Him Who dwells above —
Since to death we're going,
Why should there be love?
When he kissed and left me,
Oh, he looked so brave! —
God be with him sleeping
In his far-off grave!
What are dress and jewels,
What are meat and bread
To a lonely woman
Grieving for her dead?
Wan I am with weeping,
Tired of heart I sink —
Doing nothing . . . only
Trying not to think'
Scheme | ABCBADEDAFGFHIGIJKJKALJLMGNGJOAO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101011 1101 111010 10111 101101 10111 111110 10111 111011 11101 11101 10101 101110 10101 11111 11111 101110 11101 111110 11111 111011 11111 111110 01111 111010 11101 101010 10101 111110 101111 101010 10111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 777 |
Words | 157 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 32 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 596 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 158 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 92 Views
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"Doing Nothing" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32925/doing-nothing>.
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