Analysis of The Key-Board
William Watson 1858 (Burley in Wharfedale) – 1935 (Rottingdean)
Five-and-thirty black slaves,
Half-a-hundred white,
All their duty but to sing
For their Queen's delight,
Now with throats of thunder,
Now with dulcet lips,
While she rules them royally
With her finger-tips!
When she quits her palace,
All the slaves are dumb-
Dumb with dolour till the Queen
Back to Court is come:
Dumb the throats of thunder,
Dumb the dulcet lips,
Lacking all the sovereignty
Of her finger-tips.
Dusky slaves and pallid,
Ebon slaves and white,
When the Queen was on her throne
How you sang to-night!
Ah, the throats of thunder!
Ah, the dulcet lips!
Ah, the gracious tyrannies
Of her finger-tips!
Silent, silent, silent,
All your voices now;
Was it then her life alone
Did your life endow?
Waken, throats of thunder!
Waken, dulcet lips!
Touched to immortality
By her finger-tips.
Scheme | xaxabcdc xexebcdC xafabcxC xgfgbcdc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101011 10101 1110111 11101 111110 11101 1111100 10101 111010 10111 111101 11111 101110 10101 1010100 10101 11010 1101 1011101 11111 101110 10101 1010100 10101 101010 11101 1110101 11101 101110 10101 110100 10101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 773 |
Words | 136 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 156 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 49 Views
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"The Key-Board" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42035/the-key-board>.
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