An Answer

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



If all the year was summer-time,
 And all the aim of life
Was just to lilt on like a rhyme
 Then I would be your wife.

If all the days were August days,
 And crowned with golden weather,
How happy then through green-clad ways
 We two could stray together!

If all the nights were moonlit nights,
 And we had naught to do
But just to sit and plan delights,
 Then I would be with you.

If life was all a summer fete,
 Its soberest pace the “glide, ”
Then I would choose you for my mate,
 And keep you at my side.

But winter makes full half the year,
 And labour half of life,
And all the laughter and good cheer
 Gives place to wearing strife.

Days will grow cold, and moons wax old,
 And then a heart that’s true
Is better far than grace or gold –
 And so, my love, adieu!
 I cannot wed with you.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 08, 2023

48 sec read
92

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IBIB JFJFF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 801
Words 161
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

All Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems | Ella Wheeler Wilcox Books

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A Enjambment
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    C Dithyramb
    D A turn