Analysis of Etching
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
Two and thirty is the ploughman.
He's a man of gallant inches,
And his hair is close and curly,
And his beard;
But his face is wan and sunken,
And his eyes are large and brilliant,
And his shoulder-blades are sharp,
And his knees.
He is weak of wits, religious,
Full of sentiment and yearning,
Gentle, faded-with a cough
And a snore.
When his wife (who was a widow,
And is many years his elder)
Fails to write, and that is always,
He desponds.
Let his melancholy wander,
And he'll tell you pretty stories
Of the women that have wooed him
Long ago;
Or he'll sing of bonnie lasses
Keeping sheep among the heather,
With a crackling, hackling click
In his voice.
Scheme | ABXXAXXC XXXXDEXB ECXDBEXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 10111010 01111010 011 11111010 01111010 0110111 011 11111010 11100010 1010101 001 11111010 01101110 1110111 11 1110010 01111010 10101111 101 1111101 10101010 101011 011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 643 |
Words | 124 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 169 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 54 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Etching" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40470/etching>.
Discuss this William Ernest Henley poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In