Analysis of A Ballad Of The Two Knights
Sara Teasdale 1884 (St. Louis) – 1933 (New York City)
Two knights rode forth at early dawn
A-seeking maids to wed,
Said one, "My lady must be fair,
With gold hair on her head."
Then spake the other knight-at-arms:
"I care not for her face,
But she I love must be a dove
For purity and grace."
And each knight blew upon his horn
And went his separate way,
And each knight found a lady-love
Before the fall of day.
But she was brown who should have had
The shining yellow hair,
I ween the knights forgot their words
Or else they ceased to care.
For he who wanted purity
Brought home a wanton wild,
And when each saw the other knight
I seen that each knight smiled.
Scheme | XABA XCDC XEDE XBXB XFXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11111101 010111 11110111 111101 11010111 111101 11111101 110001 01110111 011101 01110101 010111 11111111 010101 11010111 111111 11110100 110101 01110101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 601 |
Words | 124 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 12, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 465 Views
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"A Ballad Of The Two Knights" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56627/a-ballad-of-the-two-knights>.
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