Analysis of The barren music of a word or phrase,
Christopher Morley 1890 (Haverford) – 1957
THE barren music of a word or phrase,
The futile arts of syllable and stress,
He sought. The poetry of common days
He did not guess.
The simplest, sweetest rhythms life affords-
Unselfish love, true effort truly done,
The tender themes that underlie all words-
He knew not one.
The human cadence and the subtle chime
Of little laughters, home and child and wife,
He knew not. Artist merely in his rhyme,
Not in his life.
| Scheme | ABAB XCXC DEDE |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain |
| Metre | 0101010111 0101110001 1101001101 1111 0101010101 11110101 010110111 1111 0101000101 110110101 1111010011 1011 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 426 |
| Words | 78 |
| Sentences | 6 |
| Stanzas | 3 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 12 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 23 sec read
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