Analysis of Old Song
Edward Fitzgerald 1809 (Bredfield House) – 1883 (Merton, Norfolk)
TIS a dull sight
To see the year dying,
When winter winds
Set the yellow wood sighing:
Sighing, O sighing!
When such a time cometh
I do retire
Into an old room
Beside a bright fire:
O, pile a bright fire!
And there I sit
Reading old things,
Of knights and lorn damsels,
While the wind sings--
O, drearily sings!
I never look out
Nor attend to the blast;
For all to be seen
Is the leaves falling fast:
Falling, falling!
But close at the hearth,
Like a cricket, sit I,
Reading of summer
And chivalry--
Gallant chivalry!
Then with an old friend
I talk of our youth--
How 'twas gladsome, but often
Foolish, forsooth:
But gladsome, gladsome!
Or, to get merry,
We sing some old rhyme
That made the wood ring again
In summer time--
Sweet summer time!
Then go we smoking,
Silent and snug:
Naught passes between us,
Save a brown jug--
Sometimes!
And sometimes a tear
Will rise in each eye,
Seeing the two old friends
So merrily--
So merrily!
And ere to bed
Go we, go we,
Down on the ashes
We kneel on the knee,
Praying together!
Thus, then, live I
Till, 'mid all the gloom,
By Heaven! the bold sun
Is with me in the room
Shining, shining!
Then the clouds part,
Swallows soaring between;
The spring is alive,
And the meadows are green!
I jump up like mad,
Break the old pipe in twain,
And away to the meadows,
The meadows again!
Scheme | xabaa cxdee xfbff xghga xiejj xxkcd jlmll anxnx xixJJ xjxje idkda xhxh xxxm |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011 110110 1101 1010110 10110 110110 1101 01111 010110 110110 0111 1011 11011 1011 111 11011 101101 11111 101101 1010 11101 101011 10110 0100 10100 11111 111101 111110 101 111 11110 11111 1101101 0101 1101 11110 1001 110011 1011 01 00101 11011 100111 1100 1100 0111 1111 11010 11101 10010 1111 11101 110011 111001 1010 1011 101001 01101 00111 11111 101101 001101 0101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,437 |
Words | 251 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 16 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 77 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 19 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:15 min read
- 136 Views
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"Old Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9533/old-song>.
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