Analysis of A Last Word



Let us go hence: the night is now at hand;
      The day is overworn, the birds all flown;
      And we have reaped the crops the gods have sown;
  Despair and death; deep darkness o'er the land,
  Broods like an owl; we cannot understand
      Laughter or tears, for we have only known
      Surpassing vanity: vain things alone
  Have driven our perverse and aimless band.

Let us go hence, somewhither strange and cold,
     To Hollow Lands where just men and unjust
  Find end of labour, where's rest for the old,
     Freedom to all from love and fear and lust.
  Twine our torn hands! O pray the earth enfold
     Our life-sick hearts and turn them into dust.


Scheme ABBAABBA CDCDCD
Poetic Form Petrarchan sonnet 
Metre 1111011111 01110111 0111010111 01011101001 111111001 1011111101 0101001101 11010010101 11111101 1101111001 111111101 1011110101 11011110101 10111011011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 661
Words 116
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 241
Words per stanza (avg) 57
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 13, 2023

35 sec read
80

Ernest Christopher Dowson

Ernest Christopher Dowson was born in 1867 at Lea in Kent England he was an English poet novelist and writer of short stories associated with the Decadent movement Most of his life was spent in France more…

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