Analysis of The Crazy World
William Gay 1865 (Scotland) – 1897
THE WORLD did say to me,
‘My bread thou shalt not eat,
I have no place for thee
In house nor field nor street.
‘I have on land nor sea
For thee nor home nor bread,
I scarce can give to thee
A grave when thou art dead.’
‘O crazy World,’ said I,
‘What is it thou canst give,
Which wanting, I must die,
Or having, I shall live?
‘When thou thy all hast spent,
And all thy harvests cease,
I still have nutriment
That groweth by decrease.
‘Thy streets will pass away,
Thy towers of steel be rust,
Thy heights to plains decay,
Thyself be wandering dust;
‘But I go ever on
From prime to endless prime,
I sit on Being’s throne,
A lord o’er space and time.
‘Then, crazy World,’ said I,
‘What is it thou canst give,
Which wanting, I must die,
Or having, I shall live?’
Scheme | abab acac dEDF xgbg hihi xjxj dEDF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (71%) |
Metre | 011111 111111 111111 011111 111111 111111 111111 011111 110111 111111 110111 110111 111111 011101 1111 11101 111101 1101111 111101 111001 111101 111101 111101 011101 110111 111111 110111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 882 |
Words | 156 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 80 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 46 sec read
- 118 Views
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