Analysis of Midnight Lamentation
Harold Monro 1879 (Brussels) – 1932
When you and I go down
Breathless and cold,
Our faces both worn back
To earthly mould,
How lonely we shall be!
What shall we do,
You without me,
I without you?
I cannot bear the thought
You, first, may die,
Nor of how you will weep,
Should I.
We are too much alone;
What can we do
To make our bodies one:
You, me; I, you?
We are most nearly born
Of one same kind;
We have the same delight,
The same true mind.
Must we then part, we part;
Is there no way
To keep a beating heart,
And light of day?
I could now rise and run
Through street on street
To where you are breathing–you,
That we might meet,
And that your living voice
Might sound above
Fear, and we two rejoice
Within our love.
How frail the body is,
And we are made
As only in decay
To lean and fade.
I think too much of death;
There is a gloom
When I can’t hear your breath
Calm in some room.
O, but how suddenly
Either may droop;
Countenance be so white,
Body stoop.
Then there may be a place
Where fading flowers
dropp on a lifeless face
Through weeping hours.
Is then nothing safe?
Can we not find
Some everlasting life
In our one mind?
I feel it like disgrace
Only to understand
Your spirit through your word,
Or by your hand.
I cannot find a way
Through love and through;
I cannot reach beyond
Body, to you.
When you or I must go
Down evermore,
There’ll be no more to say
–But a locked door.
Scheme | XAXABCBC XDXDXCEC XFGFHIHI EJCJKLKL XMIMNONO BPGPQRQR XFXFQSXS ICXCXTIT |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111 1001 1010111 1101 110111 1111 1011 1011 110101 1111 111111 11 111101 1111 1110101 1111 111101 1111 110101 0111 111111 1111 110101 0111 111101 1111 1111101 1111 011101 1101 101101 01101 110101 0111 110001 1101 111111 1101 111111 1011 111100 1011 100111 101 111101 11010 110101 11010 11101 1111 10101 01011 111101 10101 110111 1111 110101 1101 110101 1011 111111 110 111111 1011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,309 |
Words | 274 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 16 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 129 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 101 Views
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"Midnight Lamentation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/16854/midnight-lamentation>.
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