Analysis of The Poet's Testament
George Santayana 1863 (Madrid) – 1952 (Rome)
I give back to the earth what the earth gave,
All to the furrow, none to the grave,
The candle's out, the spirit's vigil spent;
Sight may not follow where the vision went.
I leave you but the sound of many a word
In mocking echoes haply overheard,
I sang to heaven. My exile made me free,
from world to world, from all worlds carried me.
Spared by the furies, for the Fates were kind,
I paced the pillared cloisters of the mind;
All times my present, everywhere my place,
Nor fear, nor hope, nor envy saw my face.
Blow what winds would, the ancient truth was mine,
And friendship mellowed in the flush of wine,
And heavenly laughter, shaking from its wings
Atoms of light and tears for mortal things.
To trembling harmonies of field and cloud,
Of flesh and spirit was my worship vowed.
Let form, let music, let all quickening air
Fulfil in beauty my imperfect prayer.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1111011011 110101101 011010101 1111010101 11110111001 010101101 1111011111 1111111101 110110101 1101010101 111101011 1111110111 1111010111 0101000111 01001010111 1011011101 11001001101 1101011101 11110111001 101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 856 |
Words | 162 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 49 sec read
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"The Poet's Testament" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15802/the-poet%27s-testament>.
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