Analysis of On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey
Francis Beaumont 1584 (Grace-Dieu) – 1616 (London)
MORTALITY, behold and fear!
What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within this heap of stones:
Here they lie had realms and lands,
Who now want strength to stir their hands:
Where from their pulpits seal'd with dust
They preach, 'In greatness is no trust.'
Here 's an acre sown indeed
With the richest, royall'st seed
That the earth did e'er suck in
Since the first man died for sin:
Here the bones of birth have cried--
'Though gods they were, as men they died.'
Here are sands, ignoble things,
Dropt from the ruin'd sides of kings;
Here 's a world of pomp and state,
Buried in dust, once dead by fate.
Scheme | ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01000101 1011111 1110101 1011111 1111101 11111111 11110111 11010111 11110101 10101011 10111010 1011111 1011111 11101111 1110101 11010111 11011101 10011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 637 |
Words | 122 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 18 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 482 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 118 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 89 Views
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"On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13783/on-the-tombs-in-westminster-abbey>.
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