Analysis of Ballad Of Human Life
Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803 (Clifton, Bristol) – 1849 (Basel)
WHEN we were girl and boy together,
We toss’d about the flowers
And wreath’d the blushing hours
Into a posy green and sweet.
I sought the youngest, best,
And never was at rest
Till I had laid them at thy fairy feet.
But the days of childhood they were fleet,
And the blooming sweet-briar-breath’d weather,
When we were boy and girl together.
Then we were lad and lass together,
And sought the kiss of night
Before we felt aright,
Sitting and singing soft and sweet.
The dearest thought of heart
With thee ’t was joy to part,
And the greater half was thine, as meet.
Still my eyelid’s dewy, my veins they beat
At the starry summer-evening weather,
When we were lad and lass together.
And we are man and wife together,
Although thy breast, once bold
With song, be clos’d and cold
Beneath flowers’ roots and birds’ light feet.
Yet sit I by thy tomb,
And dissipate the gloom
With songs of loving faith and sorrow sweet.
And fate and darkling grave kind dreams do cheat,
That, while fair life, young hope, despair and death are,
We ’re boy and girl, and lass and lad, and man and wife together.
Scheme | ABBCDDCCAA AXCCEECCAA AFFCGGCCXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (40%) |
Metre | 110101010 1101010 0101010 0101101 110101 010111 1111111101 10111101 0010110110 110101010 110101010 010111 01111 10010101 010111 1111111 001011111 111101111 1010101010 110101010 011101010 11111 111101 011010111 111111 01001 1111010101 010111111 11111101011 1110101010101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,156 |
Words | 203 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 282 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 67 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 77 Views
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"Ballad Of Human Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36777/ballad-of-human-life>.
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