Analysis of A Lament
Charles Harpur 1813 (Windsor) – 1868 (Australia)
Flowers in their freshness are flushing the earth,
And the voice-peopled forest is loud in its mirth,
And streams in their fulness are laughing at dearth—
Yet my bosom is aching.
There’s shadow on all things—the shadow of woe—
It falls from my spirit wherever I go,
As from a dark cloud drifting heavy and slow,
For my spirit is weary.
Ah! what can be flowers in their gladness to me,
Or the voices that people the green forest tree,
Or the full joy of streams—since my soul sighs, ah me!
O’er the grave of my Mary.
Under the glad face of nature, her face
Hath carried down with it all beauty and grace;
Pale is it there in that dark silent place—
Mary! oh Mary!
Children are by me—her children; oh God!
To see where their feet have unwittingly trod,
Tiny tracks in the loam of the new broken sod
Betwixt them and their mother!
Betwixt them and the true one who loved us in truth,
Who bore them, and died ’mid the hopes of her youth!
Who would live in a world where nor anguish nor ruth
May avail the bereaved ones.
Yet must I live, lest her spirit should say,
Meeting mine in its flight from this vesture of clay,
“Where are our little ones? Where do they stay?
And why did you leave them?”
If for them only, then, so must it be,
See, I remain with them, Mary! but see
How lonely we stand in a world without thee!
Mary! oh Mary!
I live, but death’s shadow is over me cast;
And even when wearied woe sleepeth at last,
Some dream of the dead, sighing out of the past,
Is alive in the darkness!
Could I but weep, it were comfort, though brief;
But the fountain of tears by the fire of my grief
Hath been dried to its dregs, and can shed no relief
On the thirst of my eyelids.
As music that wasteth away on the blast,
As the last ray by the sunken sun cast,
All my heart’s gladness hath died in the past,—
Mary! oh Mary!
Scheme | aaaxbbbc cccc dddC eeex fffx gggx cccC hhhx iiix hhhC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10011011001 001101011011 0101111011 1110110 111110111 11111001011 11011101001 1110110 11111001111 101011001101 101111111111 1011110 1001111001 11011111001 1111011101 10110 1011101011 11111101001 101001101101 0110110 011001111101 11101101101 111001111011 1010011 1111101011 10101111111 11101011111 011111 1111011111 1101111011 11011001011 10110 1111111011 0101101111 11101101101 1010010 1111101011 1010111010111 111111011101 101111 1101101101 1011101011 111111001 10110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,931 |
Words | 359 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 139 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 1:47 min read
- 62 Views
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"A Lament" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5110/a-lament>.
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