Analysis of The Game of our Hearts

William Henry Ogilvie 1869 (Scotland) – 1963



This is the game of our hearts!
Foot to the stirrup! Away!
Care with the night departs,
Joy comes in with the day.
A good horse tossing his rings,
A light rime decking the thorn:
And the heart of the horseman sings
For love of a hunting morn.
This is the game of our hearts!
Mottled flanks in the fern;
Rate where a rabbit starts,
Cheer to a waving stern;
Call that we rush to obey
From a Whip at his post outside:
Gone away! Gone aw-a-a-ay!
And we sit down to ride.
This is the game of our hearts!
Crash and rattle of rail;
Lean hounds driving like darts
Into the breast of the vale.
Tried Age taking the lead,
Rash Youth coated with clay;
Glory and glamour of speed,
And a right fox away.
This is the game of our hearts,
Whatever luck may ensue-
This, where a Master of Arts
May fail and a dunce get through!
This, where the confident thrust;
This, where the cowardly crane;
This, where there's nothing to trust
But fate and the feel of the rein.
This is the game of our hearts!
Squire and lawyer and lord,
Men of the farms and the marts,
Men of the pen and the sword;
Comrades we jog to the meet,
Rivals we ride the line,
And the sound of the hoofs is sweet
And the taste of the wind is wine.


Scheme AbabcdcdAeaebfbfAgaghbibAjajklklAmamnono
Poetic Form Etheree  (23%)
Metre 11011101 1101001 110101 110101 0111011 0111001 00110101 1110101 11011101 101001 110101 110101 1111101 10111111 10111001 011111 11011101 101011 111011 0101101 111001 111011 1001011 001101 11011101 101101 1101011 1100111 1101001 1101001 1111011 11001101 11011101 101001 1101001 1101001 111101 101101 00110111 00110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,164
Words 239
Sentences 17
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 40
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 915
Words per stanza (avg) 237
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
41

William Henry Ogilvie

William Henry Ogilvie was a Scottish-Australian narrative poet and horseman. more…

All William Henry Ogilvie poems | William Henry Ogilvie Books

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