This is an analysis of The Last Survivor by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
YES! the vacant chairs tell sadly we are going, going fast,
And the thought comes strangely o'er me, who will live to be the last?…
Structure
- Rhyme scheme: aabb bbcX ddee ccfX gghh hhaa ffdd Xaff iijj aabb cckk ggaa ddaa ggdX ffll eemm aabbXccaa
- Stanza lengths: 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,9,
- Metre: 101011101110101 1011101011010001 10100100101011101 001010100110101 011010101111101 1011111000101001 011000101110101 101010110111011 10110101010101 001100100011101 1011010101010101 11011101011001 11010100010011 11111111010101 11010010010101 1001010110100010 0101110011111 1101011011001 1111110110111 0101110110101 0101100101010101 101010100111101 1110101001100001 110010101010101 000110100111101 0111110111111 101010101010101 101010101011101 000011100011110 101100100010101 001000100010101 101110111010001 111110101010101 101011111010111 111010001010101 11101001100101 101010101010101 1001011001110101 001010101010101 101010111110101 101110100010101 101010100010001 01001010111101 001010100110101 1101110110101 1111001110111 0011010010111 1111011111101 1101011110111 1101011110111 1111111110101 0101110010101 1101110011100 1101010110111 010010011110101 0100111011111110 0111010110101 0101010110111 11110011010101 10010011110111 11110101100111 0111010110101 01010101101001 01011101010001 11010100101001 1101110010101 11111110100110 11010100110001 1111110110101 11111010111001 1101110011101 110011100011111
- Closest metre: iambic pentameter
- Guessed form: heroic couplets
- Stanzas: 18
- Lines: 72
Repeated words/phrases
and, of, in, some, him
Anaphora
the, his, or
Anadiplosis
he
