Analysis of London Types: Sandwich-Man

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



An ill March noon; the flagstones gray with dust;
An all-round east wind volleying straws and grit;
St. Martin's Steps, where every venomous gust
Lingers to buffet, or sneap, the passing cit;
And in the gutter, squelching a rotten boot,
Draped in a wrap that, modish ten-year syne,
Partners, obscene with sweat and grease and soot,
A horrible hat, that once was just as fine;
The drunkard's mouth a-wash for something drinkable,
The drunkard's eye alert for causal toppers,
The drunkard's neck stooped to a lot scarce thinkable,
A living crawling blazoning of Hot-Coppers,
He trails his mildews towards a Kingdom-Come
Compact of sausage-and-mash and two-o'rum!


Scheme ABAACDEDFGFGHH
Poetic Form
Metre 111101111 111111101 110111001001 10110110101 00010100101 100111111 1001110101 01001111111 01101110100 0110111010 011110111 0101011110 1111010101 10110010111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 668
Words 108
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 521
Words per stanza (avg) 106
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
51

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

All William Ernest Henley poems | William Ernest Henley Books

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