Analysis of Life
First you're born - and I'll be bound you
Find a dozen strangers round you.
"Hallo," cries the new-born baby,
"Where's my parents? which may they be?"
Awkward silence - no reply -
Puzzled baby wonders why!
Father rises, bows politely -
Mother smiles (but not too brightly) -
Doctor mumbles like a dumb thing -
Nurse is busy mixing something. -
Every symptom tends to show
You're decidedly DE TROP -
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! he! ho! ho!
Time's teetotum,
If you spin it,
Give its quotum
Once a minute:
I'll go bail
You hit the nail,
And if you fail
The deuce is in it!
You grow up, and you discover
What it is to be a lover.
Some young lady is selected -
Poor, perhaps, but well-connected,
Whom you hail (for Love is blind
As the Queen of Fairy-kind.
Though she's plain - perhaps unsightly,
Makes her face up - laces tightly,
In her form your fancy traces
All the gifts of all the graces.
Rivals none the maiden woo,
So you take her and she takes you!
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!
Joke beginning,
Never ceases,
Till your inning
Time releases;
On your way
You blindly stray,
And day by day
The joke increases!
Ten years later - Time progresses -
Sours your temper - thins your tresses;
Fancy, then, her chain relaxes;
Rates are facts and so are taxes.
Fairy Queen's no longer young -
Fairy Queen has such a tongue!
Twins have probably intruded -
Quite unbidden - just as you did;
They're a source of care and trouble -
Just as you were - only double.
Comes at last the final stroke -
Time has had his little joke!
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!
Daily driven
(Wife as drover)
Ill you've thriven -
Ne'er in clover:
Lastly, when
Threescore and ten
(And not till then),
The joke is over!
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!
Then - and then
The joke is over!
Scheme | aabbccbbddexefgfxhhhg iijjkkbblmaaEdmdmnnnl lmmloojxppqqEririsssIEsI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101111 10101011 1101110 11101111 1010101 1010101 10101010 10111110 10101011 11101010 10010111 110011 11111111 11 1111 111 1010 111 1101 0111 01101 11101010 11111010 11101010 10111010 1111111 1011101 11101010 10111010 00111010 10111010 1010101 11100111 11111111 1010 1010 1110 1010 111 1101 0111 01010 1110110 101101110 10101010 11101110 1011101 1011101 11100010 111111 10111010 11101010 1110101 1111101 11111111 1010 1110 111 1010 101 101 0111 01110 11111111 101 01110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,688 |
Words | 343 |
Sentences | 50 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 21, 21, 24 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 428 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 113 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 08, 2023
- 1:45 min read
- 110 Views
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"Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41242/life>.
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