Analysis of A Friend's Song for Simoisius
The breath of dew, and twilight's grace,
Be on the lonely battle-place;
And to so young, so kind a face,
The long, protecting grasses cling!
(Alas, alas,
The one inexorable thing!)
In rocky hollows cool and deep,
The bees our boyhood hunted sleep;
The early moon from Ida's steep
Comes to the empty wrestling-ring.
(Alas, alas,
The one inexorable thing!)
Upon the widowed wind recede
No echoes of the shepherd's reed,
And children without laughter lead
The war-horse to the watering.
(Alas, alas,
The one inexorable thing!)
Thou stranger Ajax Telamon!
What to the loveliest hast thou done,
That ne'er with him a maid may run
Across the marigolds in spring?
(Alas, alas,
The one inexorable thing!)
With footstep separate and slow
The father and the mother go,
Not now upon an urn they know
To mingle tears for comforting.
(Alas, alas,
The one inexorable thing!)
The world to me has nothing dear
Beyond the namesake river here:
O Simois is wild and clear!
And to his brink my heart I bring;
(Alas, alas,
The one inexorable thing!)
My heart no more, if that might be
Would stay his waters from the sea,
To cover Troy, to cover me,
To save us from the perishing.
(Alas, alas,
The one inexorable thing!)
Scheme | aaabCB dddbCB eexbCB fffbCB gggbCB hxhbCB iiibCB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111011 11010101 01111101 01010101 0101 0110001 01010101 01101101 0101111 11010101 0101 0110001 01010101 11010101 01001101 01110100 0101 0110001 1101100 1101111 11110111 0101001 0101 0110001 111001 01000101 11011111 11011100 0101 0110001 01111101 0101101 111101 01111111 0101 0110001 11111111 11110101 11011101 11110100 0101 0110001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,206 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 132 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 39 Views
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"A Friend's Song for Simoisius" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26153/a-friend%27s-song-for-simoisius>.
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