Analysis of An Oxford Idyll

Thomas Edward Brown 1830 – 1897



Ah little mill, you're rumbling still,
Ah sunset flecked with gold!
Ah deepening tinge, ah purple fringe
Of lilac as of old!
Ah hawthorn hedge, ah light-won pledge
Of kisses warm and plenty,
When she was true, and twenty-two,
And I was two-and-twenty.
I don't know how she broke her vow,
She said that I was "horty"
And there's the mill a goin' still,
And I am five-and-forty.
And sooth to tell, 'twas just as well,
Her aitches were uncertain;
Her ways though nice, not point-device;
Her father liked his" Burton."
But there's a place you cannot trace,
So spare the fond endeavour,
A cloudless sky, where Kate and I
Are twenty-two for ever.


Scheme ABCBDEFEGBAEHIJIKLML
Poetic Form Etheree  (35%)
Metre 110111001 11111 110011101 11111 1111111 1101010 11110101 0111010 11111101 111111 0101011 0111010 01111111 010010 01111101 0101110 11011101 1101010 01011101 1101110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 621
Words 115
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 486
Words per stanza (avg) 114
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
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Thomas Edward Brown

Thomas Edward Brown Manx poet scholar and theologian was born at Douglas Isle of Man and educated at King Williams College more…

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