Analysis of Sadness and Joy
William Henry Davies 1871 – 1940
I pray you, Sadness, leave me soon,
In sweet invention thou art poor!
Thy sister, Joy can make ten songs
While thou art making four.
One hour with thee is sweet enough;
But when we find the whole day gone
And no created thing is left --
We mourn the evil done.
Thou art too slow to shape thy thoughts
In stone, on canvas, or in song;
But Joy, being full of active heat,
Must do some deed ere long.
Thy sighs are gentle, sweet thy tears;
But if thou canst not help a man
To prove in substance what he feels --
Then givve me Joy, who can.
Therefore sweet Sadness, leave me soon,
Let thy bright sister, Joy, come more;
For she can make ten lovely songs
While thou art making four.
Scheme | axbC xxxx xdxd xexe acbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (60%) Etheree (35%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11110111 01010111 11011111 111101 110111101 11110111 01010111 110101 11111111 01110101 111011101 111111 11110111 11111101 11010111 111111 1110111 11110111 11111101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 681 |
Words | 136 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
- 40 sec read
- 147 Views
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"Sadness and Joy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 21 Mar. 2023. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40658/sadness-and-joy>.
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