Analysis of The Hammock's Complaint

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



Who thinks how desolate and strange
To me must seem the autumn's change,
When housed in attic or in chest,
A lonely and unwilling guest,
I lie through nights of bleak December,
And think in silence, and remember.

I think of hempen fields, where I
Once played with insects floating by,
And joyed alike in sun and rain,
Unconscious of approaching pain.
I dwell upon my later lot,
Where, swung in some secluded spot
Between two tried and trusted trees,
All summer long I wooed the breeze.
With song of bee and call of bird
And lover's secrets overheard,
And sight and scent of blooming flowers,
To fill the happy sunlight's hours.
When verdant fields grow bare and brown,
When forest leaves come raining down,
When frost has mated with the weather
And all the birds go south together,
When drying boats turn up their keels,
Who wonders how the hammock feels?


Scheme AABBCC DDEEFFGGHHIIJJCCKK
Poetic Form
Metre 11110001 11110101 11010101 01000101 111111010 010100010 11110111 1111101 01010101 1010101 11011101 11010101 01110101 11011101 11110111 01010101 010111010 11010110 11011101 11011101 111101010 010111010 11011111 11010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 854
Words 154
Sentences 6
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 18
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 340
Words per stanza (avg) 76
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
35

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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