Analysis of To John Nichol: Sonnets
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
FRIEND of the dead, and friend of all my days
Even since they cast off boyhood, I salute
The song saluting friends whose songs are mute
With full burnt-offerings of clear-spirited praise.
That since our old young years our several ways
Have led through fields diverse of flower and fruit
Yet no cross wind has once relaxed the root
We set long since beneath the sundawn’s rays,
The root of trust whence towered the trusty tree,
Friendship this only and duly might impel
My song to salutation of your own;
More even than praise of one unseen of me
And loved the starry spirit of Dobell,
To mine by light and music only known.
But more than this what moves me most of all
To leave not all unworded and unsped
The whole heart’s greeting of my thanks unsaid
Scarce needs this sign, that from my tongue should fall
His name whom sorrow and reverent love recall,
The sign to friends on earth of that dear head
Alive, which now long since untimely dead
The wan grey waters covered for a pall.
Their trustless reaches dense with tangling stems
Took never life more taintless of rebuke,
More pure and perfect, more serene and kind,
Than when those clear eyes closed beneath the Thames,
And made the now more hallowed name of Luke
Memorial to us of morning left behind.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDECDE FBGFFGGXHIJHIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011111 1011111101 0101011111 111100111001 111011110101 11110111001 1111110101 111101011 01111100101 10110010101 1111111 11011110111 010101011 1111010101 1111111111 1111101 0111011101 1111111111 11110010011 0111111111 0111110101 0111010101 111011101 110111101 1100110101 1111110101 0101110111 010011110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,247 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 14 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 505 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 54 Views
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"To John Nichol: Sonnets" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1441/to-john-nichol%3A-sonnets>.
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