Analysis of The Coming By-and-By
William Schwenck Gilbert 1836 – 1911
Sad is that woman's lot who, year by year,
Sees, one by one, her beauties disappear;
As Time, grown weary of her heart-drawn sighs,
Impatiently begins to "dim her eyes"! -
Herself compelled, in life's uncertain gloamings,
To wreathe her wrinkled brow with well-saved "combings" -
Reduced, with rouge, lipsalve, and pearly grey,
To "make up" for lost time, as best she may!
Silvered is the raven hair,
Spreading is the parting straight,
Mottled the complexion fair,
Halting is the youthful gait,
Hollow is the laughter free,
Spectacled the limpid eye,
Little will be left of me,
In the coming by-and-by!
Fading is the taper waist -
Shapeless grows the shapely limb,
And although securely laced,
Spreading is the figure trim!
Stouter than I used to be,
Still more corpulent grow I -
There will be too much of me
In the coming by-and-by!
Scheme | aabbbbcc dede fgfGhihifgfG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 111101001 1111010111 0100011101 0101010101 1101011111 011110101 1111111111 110101 1010101 1000101 1010101 1010101 1011 1011111 0010101 1010101 1010101 010101 1010101 111111 11111 1111111 0010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 819 |
Words | 146 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 12 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 77 Views
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"The Coming By-and-By" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41280/the-coming-by-and-by>.
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