Analysis of Despondency.
O, gloomy world that rolls in weary space,
And moans wild music to the broken spheres,
Whose rivers wander into seas of tears,
Despair has bound thee in a close embrace;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
Death grows beside existence, and with time
Is comrade of its changes; cycles roll
Their heavy circles through the human soul,
And pour their dirges into mournful rhyme;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
He gropes in shadows for a happy beam
That shall delight his bosom; into mist
Dissolves the substance that ambition kissed,
While greatness grows the garland of a dream;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
Endeavor struggles to an open grave;
The past is lost in monumental dust,
Where age on age in angry ire has thrust
The wise, the strong, the mighty, and the brave;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
The years are shades that totter from their tombs,
The ages, ghosts that live in catacombs
And lure the Present to their awful homes,
Where ancient races wander in the glooms;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
Oblivion welcomes men with gentle arms,
And presses them like infants to her breast,
Repeats to them her lullabies of rest,
And guards them from all sorrows and alarms;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
Then hasten, world, and let my battle cease;
I care not where I stay nor when I go;
For action gives unhappiness and woe,
But Lethe brings forgetfulness and peace;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
Scheme | axxaB cddcB effeB ghhgB xiiaB jkkjB lmmlB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1101110101 0111010101 1101001111 0111100101 0101011111 1101010011 111110101 1101010101 011101101 0101011111 110110101 1101110011 0101010101 1101010101 0101011111 0101011101 011100101 1111010111 0101010001 0101011111 0111110111 010111010 0101011101 1101010001 0101011111 01001011101 0101110101 011101011 0111110001 0101011111 1101011101 1111111111 1101010001 111101 0101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,460 |
Words | 285 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 4 Views
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"Despondency." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 15 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55317/despondency.>.
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