Analysis of Alice Fell, Or Poverty
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
THE post-boy drove with fierce career,
For threatening clouds the moon had drowned;
When, as we hurried on, my ear
Was smitten with a startling sound.
As if the wind blew many ways,
I heard the sound,-and more and more;
It seemed to follow with the chaise,
And still I heard it as before.
At length I to the boy called out;
He stopped his horses at the word,
But neither cry, nor voice, nor shout,
Nor aught else like it, could be heard.
The boy then smacked his whip, and fast
The horses scampered through the rain;
But, hearing soon upon the blast
The cry, I bade him halt again.
Forthwith alighting on the ground,
'Whence comes,' said I, 'this piteous moan?'
And there a little Girl I found,
Sitting behind the chaise, alone.
'My cloak!' no other word she spake,
But loud and bitterly she wept,
As if her innocent heart would break;
And down from off her seat she leapt.
'What ails you, child?'-she sobbed 'Look here!'
I saw it in the wheel entangled,
A weather-beaten rag as e'er
From any garden scare-crow dangled.
There, twisted between nave and spoke,
It hung, nor could at once be freed;
But our joint pains unloosed the cloak,
A miserable rag indeed!
'And whither are you going, child,
To-night alone these lonesome ways?'
'To Durham,' answered she, half wild-
'Then come with me into the chaise.'
Insensible to all relief
Sat the poor girl, and forth did send
Sob after sob, as if her grief
Could never, never have an end.
'My child, in Durham do you dwell?'
She checked herself in her distress,
And said, 'My name is Alice Fell;
I'm fatherless and motherless.
'And I to Durham, Sir, belong.'
Again, as if the thought would choke
Her very heart, her grief grew strong;
And all was for her tattered cloak!
The chaise drove on; our journey's end
Was nigh; and, sitting by my side,
As if she had lost her only friend
She wept, nor would be pacified.
Up to the tavern-door we post;
Of Alice and her grief I told;
And I gave money to the host,
To buy a new cloak for the old.
'And let it be of duffil grey,
As warm a cloak as man can sell!'
Proud creature was she the next day,
The little orphan, Alice Fell!
Scheme | XABA CDCD EFEF GXGX AHAH IJIJ BKXK LMLM NCNC OPOP QXQX RLRL PSPS TUTU VQVQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (87%) Etheree (28%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 01111101 110010111 11110111 11010101 11011101 11010101 11110101 01111101 11110111 11110101 11011111 11111111 01111101 01010101 11010101 01111101 111101 1111111 01010111 10010101 11110111 11010011 110100111 01110111 11111111 111001010 010101110 110101110 11001101 11111111 11011101 01000101 01011101 11011101 11010111 11110101 01001101 10110111 11011101 11010111 11010111 11010001 01111101 11000100 01110101 01110111 01010111 01110101 01111011 11010111 111110101 1111110 11010111 11000111 01110101 11011101 0111111 11011111 11011011 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,068 |
Words | 409 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 2:00 min read
- 254 Views
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"Alice Fell, Or Poverty" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42135/alice-fell%2C-or-poverty>.
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