Analysis of An Autumn Reverie
William Topaz McGonagall 1825 – 1902 (Greyfriars Parish, Edinburgh)
Alas! Beautiful Summer now hath fled,
And the face of Nature doth seem dead,
And the leaves are withered, and falling off the trees,
By the nipping and chilling autumnal breeze.
The pleasures of the little birds are all fled,
And with the cold many of them will be found dead,
Because the leaves of the trees are scattered in the blast,
And makes the feathered creatures feel downcast.
Because there are no leaves on the trees to shield them from the storm
On a windy, and rainy, cloudy morn;
Which makes their little hearts throb with pain,
By the chilling blast and the pitiless rain.
But still they are more contented than the children of God,
As long as they can pick up a worm from the sod,
Or anything they can get to eat,
Just, for instance, a stale crust of bread or a grain of wheat.
Oh! Think of the little birds in the time of the snow,
Also of the little street waifs, that are driven to and fro,
And trembling in the cold blast, and chilled to the bone,
For the want of food and clothing, and a warm home.
Besides think of the sorrows of the wandering poor,
That are wandering in the cold blast from door to door;
And begging, for Heaven's sake, a crust of bread,
And alas! Not knowing where to lay their head.
While the rich are well fed and covered from the cold,
While the poor are starving, both young and old;
Alas! It is the case in this boasted Christian land,
Where as the rich are told to be kind to the poor, is God's command.
Oh! Think of the working man when he's no work to do,
Who's got a wife and family, perhaps four or two,
And the father searching for work, and no work can be had,
The thought, I'm sure, 'tis enough to drive the poor man mad.
Because for his wife and family he must feel,
And perhaps the thought thereof will cause him to steal
Bread for his family, that are starving at home,
While the thought thereof makes him sigh heavily and groan.
Alas! The pangs of hunger are very hard to hide,
And few people can their temper control,
Or become reconciled to their fate,
Especially when they cannot find anything to eat.
Oh! Think of the struggles of the poor to make a living,
Because the rich unto them seldom are giving;
Wereas they are told he that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord,
But alas! they rather incline their money to hoard.
Then theres the little news-vendors in the street,
Running about perhaps with bare feet;
And if the rich chance to see such creatures in the street,
In general they make a sudden retreat.
Scheme | AABB AACC XXDD EEFF GGHI XXAA JJKK LLMM NNIH XXXF OOPP FFFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (58%) |
Metre | 0110010111 001110111 001110010101 10100100101 01010101111 010110111111 0101101110001 010101011 011111101111101 1010010101 111101111 10101001001 11111010101011 111111101101 11011111 11100111110111 1110101001101 101010111110101 0100001101101 101110100011 0111010101001 1110000111111 01011010111 00111011111 101111010101 1011101101 0111010110101 1101111111011101 1110101111111 1101010001111 00101011011111 0111101110111 011110100111 00101111111 111100111011 101111110001 0101110110111 0110111001 10110111 010111011011 11101010111010 010110110110 1111111010111001 1011100111011 11010110001 100101111 0101111110001 01001101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,448 |
Words | 471 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 161 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 70 Views
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"An Autumn Reverie" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41779/an-autumn-reverie>.
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