Analysis of A Dawning of Dying
In my youth, I saw a bird's ravished body
Lying in the silence of a furrow.
Its auburn feathers were wilted and shoddy,
And ants stripped its flesh and belly thorough.
Strange, so strange imagining this bird to be—
To have once ascended the vaulted blue,
To have woven music in the old oak tree,
Or to have plucked from grass the morning dew ...
And now, alas! struck down from the sky it flew,
This bird, this tiny little creature lies
Displaying a sure message in open view
That whatever comes to live also dies.
In the quietude of that lonely meeting
I marveled dreadfully that this should be:
That death swallows life, and that life is fleeting,
And that all will succumb ...
... including me.
Scheme | ABAB ACAC CDCD EAEXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111101110 1000101010 11010010010 0111101010 11101001111 1110100101 11101000111 1111110101 01011110111 1111010101 01001100101 110111101 001111010 1101001111 11101011110 011101 0101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 803 |
Words | 160 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 136 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
About this poem
This poem is based on a real event that occurred very early in my youth when I first became acutely aware—as if by some strange enlightenment or dawning—of the ontic reality of death, hence the title.
Font size:
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Dawning of Dying" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/135246/a-dawning-of-dying>.
Discuss this John W. May poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In