Analysis of A New Forest Ballad
Charles Kingsley 1819 – 1875
Oh she tripped over Ocknell plain,
And down by Bradley Water;
And the fairest maid on the forest side
Was Jane, the keeper's daughter.
She went and went through the broad gray lawns
As down the red sun sank,
And chill as the scent of a new-made grave
The mist smelt cold and dank.
'A token, a token!' that fair maid cried,
'A token that bodes me sorrow;
For they that smell the grave by night
Will see the corpse to-morrow.
'My own true love in Burley Walk
Does hunt to-night, I fear;
And if he meet my father stern,
His game may cost him dear.
'Ah, here's a curse on hare and grouse,
A curse on hart and hind;
And a health to the squire in all England,
Leaves never a head behind.'
Her true love shot a mighty hart
Among the standing rye,
When on him leapt that keeper old
From the fern where he did lie.
The forest laws were sharp and stern,
The forest blood was keen;
They lashed together for life and death
Beneath the hollies green.
The metal good and the walnut wood
Did soon in flinders flee;
They tost the orts to south and north,
And grappled knee to knee.
They wrestled up, they wrestled down,
They wrestled still and sore;
Beneath their feet the myrtle sweet
Was stamped to mud and gore.
Ah, cold pale moon, thou cruel pale moon,
That starest with never a frown
On all the grim and the ghastly things
That are wrought in thorpe and town:
And yet, cold pale moon, thou cruel pale moon,
That night hadst never the grace
To lighten two dying Christian men
To see one another's face.
They wrestled up, they wrestled down,
They wrestled sore and still,
The fiend who blinds the eyes of men
That night he had his will.
Like stags full spent, among the bent
They dropped a while to rest;
When the young man drove his saying knife
Deep in the old man's breast.
The old man drove his gunstock down
Upon the young man's head;
And side by side, by the water brown,
Those yeomen twain lay dead.
They dug three graves in Lyndhurst yard;
They dug them side by side;
Two yeomen lie there, and a maiden fair
A widow and never a bride.
In the New Forest, 1847.
Scheme | xaba xcxc bdxd xefe xgxg xhxh fixi xjxj Klxl mkxk mnon Kpop xqxq krkr xbxb x |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011 0111010 0010110101 110110 110110111 110111 0110110111 011101 0100101111 01011110 11110111 1101110 11110101 111111 01111101 111111 11011101 011101 0011010110 1100101 01110101 010101 11111101 1011111 01010101 010111 110101101 010101 01010011 110101 11011101 010111 11011101 110101 01110101 111101 111111011 1111001 110100101 1110101 0111111011 1111001 110110101 1110101 11011101 110101 01110111 111111 11110101 110111 101111101 100111 0111111 010111 011110101 11111 11110101 111111 111100101 01001001 00110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,002 |
Words | 398 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 61 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 2:00 min read
- 81 Views
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"A New Forest Ballad" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5238/a-new-forest-ballad>.
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