Analysis of Etesia Absent
Henry Vaughan 1621 (Brecknockshire) – 1695
Love, the world's life! What a sad death
Thy absence is to lose our breath
At once and die, is but to live
Enlarged, without the scant reprieve
Of pulse and air: whose dull returns
And narrow circles the soul mourns.
But to be dead alive, and still
To wish, but never have our will:
To be possessed, and yet to miss;
To wed a true but absent bliss:
Are lingering tortures, and their smart
Dissects and racks and grinds the heart!
As soul and body in that state
Which unto us seems separate,
Cannot be said to live, until
Reunion; which days fulfil
And slow-paced seasons: so in vain
Through hours and minutes (Time's long train,)
I look for thee, and from thy sight,
As from my soul, for life and light.
For till thine eyes shine so on me,
Mine are fast-closed and will not see.
Scheme | AABCDEFFGGHHIIFFJJKKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111011 110111101 11011111 01010101 11011101 01010011 11110101 111101101 11010111 11011101 110010011 01010101 11010011 1101110 10111101 010111 01110101 110010111 11110111 11111101 11111111 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 765 |
Words | 151 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 22 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 600 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 148 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 61 Views
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"Etesia Absent" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18425/etesia-absent>.
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