Analysis of What is Our Life
Sir Walter Raleigh 1552 (Hayes Barton, East Budleigh, Devon) – 1618 (London)
WHAT is our life? The play of passion.
Our mirth? The music of division:
Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be,
Where we are dressed for life’s short comedy.
The earth the stage; Heaven the spectator is,
Who sits and views whosoe’er doth act amiss.
The graves which hide us from the scorching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus playing post we to our latest rest,
And then we die in earnest, not in jest.
| Scheme | AABBCDAAEE |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1110101110 1010101010 10101010101 1111111100 01011001001 110111101 0111110101 1111010111 11011110101 0111010101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 444 |
| Words | 89 |
| Sentences | 8 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 10 |
| Lines Amount | 10 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 332 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 79 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 26 sec read
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"What is Our Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Jul 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35466/what-is-our-life>.
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