Analysis of The Same Old Strain
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Each day that I live I am persuaded anew,
A maxim I long have believed in, is true.
Each day I grow firmer in this, my belief,
Strong drink causes half the world's trouble and grief.
Do I take up a paper, I read of a fight,
Tom's fist in his eye deprived Jamie of sight;
Both fellows were drinking before it began,
And drink made a brute of a peaceable man.
Next, Jones kills his wife, such an awful affair!
She was throttled, and pounded, and drawn by the hair;
Cause-'Jones had been drinking-not in his sane mind.'
(Few men
are
who tip up the bottle, I find.)
Then, a man is assaulted and dirked in the dark
By two 'jolly boys' who are out on a 'lark;'
They have ever been peaceable boys-but, you see,
They drank, and 'were hardly themselves' on this spree.
Just over the street lives the man who is known
To be honest and kind, when he lets drink alone;
But whenever he quaffs from the full, flowing bowl,
He is more like a beast than a man with a soul.
Next door lives the husband who frets at his wife;
With his temper and spleen, she's no peace of her life.
Well I know-do you? he muddles his head
Every night with hot toddy, ere going to bed.
'We temperance croakers harp on the same strain?'
Well-the cause is one story again and again;
Fights-tragedy-troubles-all stirred up by drink,
Good reason we have to keep
harping
, I think.
We harp to these words; strong drink drives the knife
To the heart of a friend, and deprives him of life;
It turns sober boys into rowdies and knaves-
It steals from the household to fill up the graves.
Who loves it the most first falls by its art;
It first wins its victim-then strikes to the heart.
But one thing is certain-it never was known
To do a man harm if he let it alone.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFGXF HHII JJKK LLMM XGNXXN LLOO PPJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (28%) |
Metre | 111111101001 01011101011 11111001101 11101011001 111101011101 11011011011 11001001101 01101101001 11111111001 111001001101 11111010111 11 1 11101011 101101001001 11101111101 111011001111 11001001111 11001101111 111001111101 101011101101 111101101101 11101011111 111001111101 1111111011 100111111011 1100111011 101111001001 11001011111 1101111 10 11 1111111101 101101001111 11101011001 1110111101 1110111111 11111011101 11111011011 11011111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,693 |
Words | 337 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 146 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 109 Views
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"The Same Old Strain" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10895/the-same-old-strain>.
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