Analysis of Before Execution.

Robert Crawford 1959 (Bellshill)



The sun is set, and all the stars are come,
Stars I shall no more see; the air is still,
And my life waits the ruin so near now.
A little space, and I shall have done here.
Ah, God! twelve hours, twelve little hours, and, lo!
The air and these lips part, day becomes night,
Earth nothing, time a skeleton, and I
An angry ghost, or a tired phantom laid
With many others in oblivion.
Twelve hours, twelve little hours, and I shall have
A wondrous change — feel one fierce pang, and then
Fade off I know not where, or like a star
Shot fearfully from the zenith singe my way
Through chaos haply for some aeons till
I reach another air, a lower sky,
And maybe with a baleful influence
Burn in Pluto's reign.


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKLMBGNO
Poetic Form
Metre 0111010111 1111110111 0111010111 0101011111 111101101001 0101111011 1101010001 11011010101 1101000100 110110100111 0101111101 1111111101 111010111 11011111 1101010101 0101010100 10101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 696
Words 139
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 17
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 538
Words per stanza (avg) 137
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
83

Robert Crawford

Robert Crawford FRSE FBA is a Scottish poet, scholar and critic. He is currently Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.  more…

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