Analysis of In Memoriam A. H. H.: 118. Contemplate all this work of Tim



Contemplate all this work of Time,
        The giant labouring in his youth;
        Nor dream of human love and truth,
    As dying Nature's earth and lime;
    But trust that those we call the dead
        Are breathers of an ampler day
        For ever nobler ends. They say,
    The solid earth whereon we tread
    In tracts of fluent heat began,
       And grew to seeming-random forms,
       The seeming prey of cyclic storms,
   Till at the last arose the man;

Who throve and branch'd from clime to clime,
       The herald of a higher race,
       And of himself in higher place,
   If so he type this work of time

Within himself, from more to more;
       Or, crown'd with attributes of woe
       Like glories, move his course, and show
   That life is not as idle ore,

But iron dug from central gloom,
       And heated hot with burning fears,
       And dipt in baths of hissing tears,
   And batter'd with the shocks of doom

To shape and use. Arise and fly
       The reeling Faun, the sensual feast;
       Move upward, working out the beast,
   And let the ape and tiger die.


Scheme ABBACDDCEFFE AGGA HIIH JXXJ KLLK
Poetic Form
Metre 1011111 0101011 11110101 11010101 11111101 111111 11010111 0101111 01110101 01110101 01011101 11010101 11011111 01010101 01010101 11111111 01011111 1111011 11011101 11111101 11011101 01011101 01011101 01010111 11010101 010101001 11010101 01010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,085
Words 183
Sentences 4
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 12, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 149
Words per stanza (avg) 36
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

56 sec read
95

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets.  more…

All Alfred Lord Tennyson poems | Alfred Lord Tennyson Books

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