Analysis of The Last Of May
William Makepeace Thackeray 1811 – 1863
By fate's benevolent award,
Should I survive the day,
I'll drink a bumper with my lord
Upon the last of May.
That I may reach that happy time
The kindly gods I pray,
For are not ducks and pease in prime
Upon the last of May?
At thirty boards, 'twixt now and then,
My knife and fork shall play;
But better wine and better men
I shall not meet in May.
And though, good friend, with whom I dine,
Your honest head is gray,
And, like this grizzled head of mine,
Has seen its last of May;
Yet, with a heart that's ever kind,
A gentle spirit gay,
You've spring perennial in your mind,
And round you make a May!
Scheme | abaB cbcB dbdb ebeb fbfb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11010001 110101 11010111 010111 11111101 010111 11110101 010111 11011101 110111 11010101 111101 01111111 110111 01110111 111111 11011101 010101 110100011 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 592 |
Words | 122 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
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"The Last Of May" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41052/the-last-of-may>.
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