Analysis of On the Idle Hill of Summer
Alfred Edward Housman 1859 – 1936
On the idle hill of summer,
Sleepy with the flow of streams,
Far I hear the steady drummer
Drumming like a noise in dreams.
Far and near and low and louder
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder,
Soldiers marching, all to die.
East and west on fields forgotten
Bleach the bones of comrades slain,
Lovely lads and dead and rotten;
None that go return again.
Far the calling bugles hollo,
High the screaming fife replies,
Gay the files of scarlet follow:
Woman bore me, I will rise.
Scheme | ABAB ACAC DXDX EFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 10101110 1010111 11101010 1010101 10101010 1011111 11101110 1010111 10111010 101111 10101010 1110101 1010101 1010101 10111010 1011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 510 |
Words | 97 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 29 sec read
- 201 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"On the Idle Hill of Summer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/903/on-the-idle-hill-of-summer>.
Discuss this Alfred Edward Housman poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In