Analysis of George Eliot
Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)
Dead! Is she dead?
And all that light extinguished!
Mend your words,
Those gropings of the blind along plain paths
Where all the Heavens are shining! Know you not,
Though the Eternal Luminary dips
Below our cramped horizon, leaving here
Only a train of glory, he but goes
To dawn on other and neglected worlds,
Benighted of his presence! So with her,
Whose round imagination, like the sun,
Drew the sad mists of the low-lying earth
Up to her own great altitude, and there
Made them in smiling tears evaporate.
Announce the sun's self dead, and o'er him roll
An epitaph of darkness;-then aver
She too has set for ever.
Think it thus,
If for sweet comfort's sake. What we call death
Is but another sentinel despatched
To relieve life, weary of being on guard,
Whose active service is not ended here,
But after intermission is renewed
In other fields of duty. This to her
Was an uncertain promise, since it seems,
Unto the eye of seriousness, unreal,
That, like a child, death should but play with life,
Blowing it out, to blow it in again.
This contradiction over, now she stands
Certain of all uncertainty, and dwells
Where death the sophist puzzles life no more,
But with disdainful silence or clear proof
Confuted is for ever. Yet our loss
By others' gain is mended not, and we
Sit in the darkness that her light hath left.
Comfort our grief with symbols as we will,
Her empty throne stares stony in our face,
And with a dumb relentlessness proclaims
That she has gone for ever, for ever gone,
Returning not. . . . How plain I see her now,
The twilight tresses, deepening into night,
The brow a benediction, and the eyes
Seat where compassion never set, and like
That firm, fixed star, which altereth not its place
While all the planets round it sink and swim,
Shone with a steady guidance. O, and a voice
Matched with whose modulations softest notes
Of dulcimer by daintiest fingers stroked,
Or zephyrs wafted over summer seas,
On summer shores subsiding, sounded harsh.
Listening whereto, steeled obduracy felt
The need to kneel, necessity to weep,
And craving to be comforted; a shrine
Of music and of incense and of flowers,
Where hearts, at length self-challenged, were content
Still to be sad and sinful, so they might
Feel that exonerating pity steal
In subtle absolution on their guilt.
Dead? Never dead!
That this, man's insignificant domain,
Which is not boundary of space, should be
The boundary of life, revolts the mind,
Even when bounded. Into soaring space
Soar, spacious spirit! unembarrassed now
By earthly boundaries, and circle up
Into the Heaven of Heavens, and take thy place
Where the Eternal Morning broadens out
To recognise thy coming. Realm on Realm
Of changeless revolution round thee roll,
Thou moving with them, and among the stars
Shine thou a star long looked for; or, unbuoyed,
Beyond the constellations of our ken,
Traverse the infinite azure with thy heart,
And with love's light elucidate the Spheres;
While we, below, this meek libation pour,
Mingled of honey and hyssop, on thy grave!
Scheme | AX XXXXBXXCXXXXDCC XXAXBXCXEXFXXGXXHXXIXXJKXXIXXXXXXXXXXXKEX AXHXIJXIXXDXAFXXGX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111 0111010 111 111010111 11010110111 100101001 01101010101 1001110111 1111000101 0101110110 110010101 1011101101 110111001 110101010 01011101011 110110110 1111110 111 111111111 110101001 10111011011 1101011101 110010101 0101110110 1101010111 10011100001 1101111111 1011111001 101010111 1011010001 110110111 1101010111 111101101 1101110101 1001010111 10101110111 01011100101 0101101 11111101101 0101111101 0110100011 010010001 1101010101 111111111 1101011101 11010101001 1111101 110011101 1101010101 1101010101 1001111 0111010011 0101110001 11001010110 1111110010 1111010111 110100101 010010111 1101 111010001 1111001111 0100110101 1011001101 1101011 1101000101 010101100111 1001010101 11110111 11010111 1101100101 110111111 0100101101 10010010111 011101001 11011111 10110010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,955 |
Words | 524 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 15, 41, 18 |
Lines Amount | 76 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 599 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 131 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 2:38 min read
- 129 Views
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"George Eliot" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/721/george-eliot>.
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