Analysis of Black Sheep
Theodosia Garrison 1874 – 1944
"Black Sheep, Black Sheep,
Have you any wool?"
"That I have, my Master,
Three bags full."
One is for the mother who prays for me at night--
A gift of broken promises to count by candle-light.
One is for the tried friend who raised me when I fell--
A gift of weakling's tinsel oaths that strew the path to hell.
And one is for the true love--the heaviest of all--
That holds the pieces of a faith a careless hand let fall.
Black Sheep, Black Sheep,
Have you ought to say?
A word to each, my Master,
Ere I go my way.
A word unto my mother to bid her think o' me
Only as a little lad playing at her knee.
A word unto my tried friend to bid him see again
Two laughing lads in Springtime a-racing down the glen.
A word unto my true love--a single word--to pray
If one day I cross her path to turn her eyes away.
Scheme | Abcb dd ee ff Agcg hh ii gg |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111 11101 111110 111 111010111111 01110100111101 111011111111 0111101110111 0111011010011 11010101010111 1111 11111 0111110 11111 0110110110111 101010110101 0110111111101 110101010101 0110111010111 1111101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 808 |
Words | 172 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 2, 2, 2, 4, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 76 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 20 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 6 Views
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"Black Sheep" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56713/black-sheep>.
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