Analysis of Grave
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
St. Margaret's bells,
Quiring their innocent, old-world canticles,
Sing in the storied air,
All rosy-and-golden, as with memories
Of woods at evensong, and sands and seas
Disconsolate for that the night is nigh.
O, the low, lingering lights! The large last gleam
(Hark! how those brazen choristers cry and call!)
Touching these solemn ancientries, and there,
The silent River ranging tide-mark high
And the callow, grey-faced Hospital,
With the strange glimmer and glamour of a dream!
The Sabbath peace is in the slumbrous trees,
And from the wistful, the fast-widowing sky
(Hark! how those plangent comforters call and cry!)
Falls as in August plots late roseleaves fall.
The sober Sabbath stir -
Leisurely voices, desultory feet! -
Comes from the dry, dust-coloured street,
Where in their summer frocks the girls go by,
And sweethearts lean and loiter and confer,
Just as they did an hundred years ago,
Just as an hundred years to come they will:-
When you and I, Dear Love, lie lost and low,
And sweet-throats none our welkin shall fulfil,
Nor any sunset fade serene and slow;
But, being dead, we shall not grieve to die.
Scheme | AABCCDEFBDGECDDFHIIDHJKJFJD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001 101100111 100101 11001011100 11110101 1110111 10110010111 111101101 10110101 0101010111 00101110 10110010101 010110011 010100111 1111100101 110101111 010101 100101001 11011101 1011010111 011010001 1111110101 1111011111 1101111101 011110111 110110101 1101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,106 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 27 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 881 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 189 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 107 Views
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"Grave" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40476/grave>.
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