Analysis of Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell
John Keats 1795 (Moorgate) – 1821 (Rome)
Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell
No God, no demon of severe response
Deigns to reply from heaven or from hell
Then to my human heart I turn at once:
Heart, thou and I are here, sad and alone,
Say, why did I laugh? O mortal pain!
O darkness! darkness! Forever must I moan
To question heaven and hell and heart in vain?
Why did I laugh? I know this being's lease
My fancy to it's utmost blisses spreads
Yet would I on this very midnight cease
And all the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds
Verse, fame and beauty are intense indeed
But death intenser, death is life's high meed.
| Scheme | ABACDEDEFGFGHH |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1111011111 1111010101 1101110111 1111011111 1101111001 111111101 11010010111 11010010101 1111111101 11011111 111111011 0101101101 1101010101 11111111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 583 |
| Words | 116 |
| Sentences | 9 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 14 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 455 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 148 Views
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"Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23539/why-did-i-laugh-tonight%3F-no-voice-will-tell>.
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