Analysis of Ballade Of Forgotten Loves

Arthur Grissom 1869 (Payson, Illinois) – 1901




Some poets sing of sweethearts dead,
Some sing of true loves far away;
Some sing of those that others wed,
And some of idols turned to clay.
I sing a pensive roundelay
To sweethearts of a doubtful lot,
The passions vanished in a day,
The little loves that I've forgot.

For, as the happy years have sped,
And golden dreams have changed to gray,
How oft the flame of love was fed
By glance, or smile, from Maud or May,
When wayward Cupid was at play;
Mere fancies, formed of who knows what,
But still my debt I ne'er can pay,
The little loves that I've forgot.

O joyous hours forever fled!
O sudden hopes that would not stay!
Held only by the slender thread
Of memory that's all astray.
Their very names I cannot say.
Time's will is done, I know them not;
But blessings on them all, I pray,
The little loves that I've forgot.

Sweetheart, why foolish fears betray?
Ours is the one true lovers' knot;
Note well the burden of my lay,
The little loves that I've forgot.


Scheme ababxcbC ababbxbC ababbcbC bcbC
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111 11111101 11111101 01110111 110101 1110101 01010001 01011101 11010111 01011111 11011111 11111111 11010111 11011111 11111111 01011101 110100101 11011111 11010101 11001101 11011101 11111111 11011111 01011101 1110101 101011101 11010111 01011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 954
Words 188
Sentences 10
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 186
Words per stanza (avg) 46
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 27, 2023

58 sec read
6

Arthur Grissom

Daily Sentinel. In the meanwhile, he also managed to be graduated, in May, 1887, from Woodland College in Independence. He went to Kansas City in the autumn of 1887, and was on the staff of the Kansas City Daily News. In October, 1888, in Kansas City, he and C. M. Harger organized the "Western Authors' and Artists' Club," and ran it for four or five years, hoping to make it the salon of Western literature. Other members of the Club were William R. Eyster, Tom Morgan, Will Lisenbee, John Whitson, Maro O. Roife, John Musick, and Joseph E. Badger. From this time on, he divided his time between Kansas City and New York. In 1891 he was for a short time associate editor of the Marine Journal, and later of the Sunday Advertiser. He returned to Kansas City and in 1895 became managing editor and editorial writer for the Kansas City Evening World. In 1895 he was married to Julia Stone Wood, the daughter of Willis Wood, the then mogul of Kansas City, president of the Bank of Commerce, builder of the Willis Wood Theatre and other important buildings. She met him in New York and they were married at the Little Church around the Corner. They had one daughter, Gladys, and were later divorced. In 1896 Grissom again removed to New York and in 1899, with George Creel, Wilson's propagandist, he began The Independent, a weekly story paper of the Saturday Evening Post type. At this time and earlier he was also contributing to the Banner Weekly, Golden Days, Life, Puck, Truth, and Frank Leslie's publications, and also published a book of poems over the initials "A.G." A few Nickel Libraries were also his. He founded and became editor of Smart Set, remaining with it until his death from typhoid fever, December 3, 1901. He was buried at Independence, Missouri. more…

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