Analysis of Requiem
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
NOW veiled in the inviolable past
Love lies asleep, who never more will wake;
Nor would you wake him, even for my sake
Who for your sake pray he sleep sound at last.
What good thing had we of him--we who bore
So long his yoke? what pleasant thing had we
That we should weep his deathlong sleep to see,
Or call on Life to waken him once more?
A little joy he gave, and much of pain,
A little pleasure, and enduring grief,
One flower of joy, and pain piled sheaf on sheaf,
Harvests of loss, for every bud of gain.
Yet where he lies in this deserted place
Divided by his narrow grave we sit,
Welded together by the depths of it,
Watching the years pass, with averted face.
We do not mourn for him, for here is peace;
The old unrest frets not these empty years;
With him went smiles a few, and many tears,
And peace is sweeter far than those or these.
Only--we owe him nothing. If he gave,
We too gave gifts--his gifts were less than ours:
We gave the world, that held so many flowers
For this--the world that only holds his grave.
Scheme | ABBA CDDC EFFE GHHG XXXX IJJI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 1100010001 1101110111 1111110111 1111111111 1111111111 1111110111 111111111 1111110111 0101110111 0101000101 11011011111 10111100111 1111010101 0101110111 1001010111 1001110101 1111111111 0101111101 1111010101 0111011111 1011110111 11111101110 11011111010 1101110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,035 |
Words | 202 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 132 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
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"Requiem" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8897/requiem>.
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