Analysis of If



If a man could live a thousand years,
When half his life had passed,
He might, by strict economy,
A fortune have amassed.

Then having gained some common-sense,
And knowledge, too, of life,
He could select the woman who
Would make him a true wife.

But as it is, man hasn't time
To even pay his debts,
And weds to be acquainted with
The woman whom he gets.


Scheme XAXA XBXB XCXC
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 101110101 111111 11110100 010101 11011101 010111 11010101 111011 11111101 110111 01110101 010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 349
Words 70
Sentences 3
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 91
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 22, 2023

21 sec read
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H C Dodge

Nothing much is known about this poet apart from a name beneath a poem in an old magazine. The Magazine is "The Horsforth Almanack for 1895" and the poem is "That Honest Farmer" Horsforth in this case is a Yorkshire village between Leeds and Bradford. more…

All H C Dodge poems | H C Dodge Books

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