Analysis of The Unknown Dead
Henry Timrod 1828 (Charleston) – 1867 (Columbia)
The rain is plashing on my sill,
But all the winds of Heaven are still;
And so it falls with that dull sound
Which thrills us in the church-yard ground,
When the first spadeful drops like lead
Upon the coffin of the dead.
Beyond my streaming window-pane,
I cannot see the neighboring vane,
Yet from its old familiar tower
The bell comes, muffled, through the shower.
What strange and unsuspected link
Of feeling touched, has made me think --
While with a vacant soul and eye
I watch that gray and stony sky --
Of nameless graves on battle-plains
Washed by a single winter's rains,
Where, some beneath Virginian hills,
And some by green Atlantic rills,
Some by the waters of the West,
A myriad unknown heroes rest.
Ah! not the chiefs, who, dying, see
Their flags in front of victory,
Or, at their life-blood's noble cost
Pay for a battle nobly lost,
Claim from their monumental beds
The bitterest tears a nation sheds.
Beneath yon lonely mound -- the spot
By all save some fond few forgot --
Lie the true martyrs of the fight
Which strikes for freedom and for right.
Of them, their patriot zeal and pride,
The lofty faith that with them died,
No grateful page shall farther tell
Than that so many bravely fell;
And we can only dimly guess
What worlds of all this world's distress,
What utter woe, despair, and dearth,
Their fate has brought to many a hearth.
Just such a sky as this should weep
Above them, always, where they sleep;
Yet, haply, at this very hour,
Their graves are like a lover's bower;
And Nature's self, with eyes unwet,
Oblivious of the crimson debt
To which she owes her April grace,
Laughs gayly o'er their burial-place.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHXHIIJJXXKK LLMMNNOOPPXXQQEEBXRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111 110111011 01111111 11100111 1011111 01010101 01110101 110101001 111101010 011101010 1100101 11011111 11010101 11110101 11011101 11010101 11010101 01110101 11010101 010001101 11011101 11011100 11111101 11010101 1110101 010010101 01110101 11111101 10110101 11110011 111100101 01011111 11011101 11110101 01110101 11111101 11010101 111111001 11011111 0111111 11111010 111101010 0101111 010010101 11110101 111011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,603 |
Words | 298 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 26, 20 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 641 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 148 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 07, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 145 Views
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"The Unknown Dead" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18285/the-unknown-dead>.
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