Analysis of The Ballad Of Father O'Hart
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
GOOD Father John O'Hart
In penal days rode out
To a Shoneen who had free lands
And his own snipe and trout.
In trust took he John's lands;
Sleiveens were all his race;
And he gave them as dowers to his daughters.
And they married beyond their place.
But Father John went up,
And Father John went down;
And he wore small holes in his Shoes,
And he wore large holes in his gown.
All loved him, only the shoneen,
Whom the devils have by the hair,
From the wives, and the cats, and the children,
To the birds in the white of the air.
The birds, for he opened their cages
As he went up and down;
And he said with a smile, 'Have peace now';
And he went his way with a frown.
But if when anyone died
Came keeners hoarser than rooks,
He bade them give over their keening;
For he was a man of books.
And these were the works of John,
When, weeping score by score,
People came into Colooney;
For he'd died at ninety-four.
There was no human keening;
The birds from Knocknarea
And the world round Knocknashee
Came keening in that day.
The young birds and old birds
Came flying, heavy and sad;
Keening in from Tiraragh,
Keening from Ballinafad;
Keening from Inishmurray.
Nor stayed for bite or sup;
This way were all reproved
Who dig old customs up.
Scheme | ABCBCDEDFGHGGIJIKGLGMNONPQGQOIRSTUVAIFAF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 110111 010111 1011111 011101 011111 10111 0111111110 01100111 110111 010111 01111011 01111011 1111001 10101101 1010010010 101001101 011110110 111101 011101111 01111101 111101 11111 11111011 1110111 0100111 110111 101011 1111101 111101 0111 00111 11011 011011 1101001 1011 111 111 111111 11011 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,206 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 958 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 236 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 70 Views
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"The Ballad Of Father O'Hart" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39443/the-ballad-of-father-o%27hart>.
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