"LEISURE"

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

The title of the poem is “Leisure” and so I expect this one to be about fun, entertainment or intellectual activities that you can do in your spare time. 

From looking the lay-out I can notice that the poem is arranged into seven stanzas and each one contains two lines so there is a condition of balance within the text.

In the first stanzas the speaking voice begins to reflect saying that life is full of care and we have not got much time to stand and stare, then he explain that we have no time to do a lot of other things: for example we have no time to stand beneath the boughs and stare like sheep or cows, to see the woods that we pass or squirrels that hide their nuts in grass, to see in broad daylight streams full of stars like skies at night, to turn at Beauty’s glance, to watch her feet and to wait till her mouth  can enrich that smile her eyes began. Finally the voice concludes repeating that the life is poor if we have no time neither to stand and stare. 

In the text you can find many figures of speech that involve the attention of the reader; for example similes (“And stare as long as sheep or cows” or “Streams full of stars, like skies at night”) or personification (Beauty’s glance = a beautiful woman). Then there is an anaphoric syntax (the first and the last stanzas), these two stanzas are very similar but they present a small particular; in the first the poet ask himself what is the life if we have no time to stand and stare and in the last he says that this is a poor life.

The rhyme pattern is AABBCCDDEEFFGG and so there are many rhyme couplet that make the rhythm more flowing. 

In my opinion the poet wants to explain that the life is so full of care that we do not enjoy the small things that makes life better and this is wrong.