Analysis of The Sea of Death
Thomas Hood 1799 (London) – 1845 (London)
——Methought I saw
Life swiftly treading over endless space;
And, at her foot-print, but a bygone pace,
The ocean-past, which, with increasing wave,
Swallow'd her steps like a pursuing grave.
Sad were my thoughts that anchor'd silently
On the dead waters of that passionless sea,
Unstirr'd by any touch of living breath:
Silence hung over it, and drowsy Death,
Like a gorged sea-bird, slept with folded wings
On crowded carcases—sad passive things
That wore the thin gray surface, like a veil
Over the calmness of their features pale.
And there were spring-faced cherubs that did sleep
Like water-lilies on that motionless deep,
How beautiful! with bright unruffled hair
On sleek unfretted brows, and eyes that were
Buried in marble tombs, a pale eclipse!
And smile-bedimpled cheeks, and pleasant lips,
Meekly apart, as if the soul intense
Spake out in dreams of its own innocence:
And so they lay in loveliness, and kept
The birth-night of their peace, that Life e'en wept
With very envy of their happy fronts;
For there were neighbor brows scarr'd by the brunts
Of strife and sorrowing—where Care had set
His crooked autograph, and marr'd the jet
Of glassy locks, with hollow eyes forlorn,
And lips that curl'd in bitterness and scorn—
Wretched,—as they had breathed of this world's pain,
And so bequeathed it to the world again,
Through the beholder's heart in heavy sighs.
So lay they garmented in torpid light,
Under the pall of a transparent night,
Like solemn apparitions lull'd sublime
To everlasting rest,—and with them Time
Slept, as he sleeps upon the silent face
Of a dark dial in a sunless place.
Scheme | ABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKKLMNNOAPPQQRSTUUVVBB |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111 1101010101 010111011 0101110101 1001100101 1011110100 101101111 111011101 1011010101 1011111101 11011101 1101110101 1001011101 0101110111 11010111001 1100110101 11110110 1001010101 01110101 1001110101 1101111100 01110101 01111111111 1101011101 1101011101 11011111 110100101 1101110101 0111010001 1011111111 0101110101 10110101 11110101 1001100101 110010101 101010111 1111010101 101100011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,630 |
Words | 274 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 38 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,276 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 270 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 113 Views
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"The Sea of Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36703/the-sea-of-death>.
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