Analysis of A ho! A ho! (song )

Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803 (Clifton, Bristol) – 1849 (Basel)



Act II Scene ii, lines 26-55

A ho! A ho!
Love's horn doth blow,
And he will out a-hawking go.
His shafts are light as beauty's sighs,
And bright as midnight's brightest eyes,
 And round his starry way
The swan-winged horses of the skies,
With summer's music in their manes,
Curve their fair necks to zephyr's reins,
 And urge their graceful play.

A ho! A ho!
Love's horn doth blow,
And he will out a-hawking go.
The sparrows flutter round his wrist.
The feathery thieves that Venus kissed
 And taught their morning song,
The linnets seek the airy list,
And swallows too, small pets of Spring,
Beat back the gale with swifter wing,
 And dart and wheel along.

A ho! A ho!
Love's horn doth blow,
And he will out a-hawking go.
Now woe to every gnat that skips
To filch the fruit of ladies' lips,
 His felon blood is shed;
And woe to flies, whose airy ships
On beauty cast their anchoring bite,
And bandit wasp, that naughty wight,
 Whose sting is slaughter-red.


Scheme x AAAbbcbddc AAAeefeggf AAAhhihjji
Poetic Form
Metre 11111 0101 1111 01110101 1111111 0111101 011101 01110101 11010011 1111111 011101 0101 1111 01110101 01010111 010011101 011101 0110101 01011111 11011101 010101 0101 1111 01110101 111100111 11011101 110111 01111101 110111001 01011101 111101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 967
Words 176
Sentences 14
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 1, 10, 10, 10
Lines Amount 31
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 183
Words per stanza (avg) 44
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

54 sec read
101

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Thomas Lovell Beddoes was an English poet, dramatist and physician. more…

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