Analysis of Scenes In London II - Oxford Street
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
Life in its many shapes was there,
The busy and the gay;
Faces that seemed too young and fair
To ever know decay.
Wealth, with its waste, its pomp, and pride,
Led forth its glittering train;
And poverty’s pale face beside
Asked aid, and asked in vain.
The shops were filled from many lands,
Toys, silks, and gems, and flowers;
The patient work of many hands,
The hope of many hours.
Yet, mid life’s myriad shapes around
There was a sigh of death;
There rose a melancholy sound,
The bugle’s wailing breath.
They played a mournful Scottish air,
That on its native hill
Had caught the notes the night-winds bear
From weeping leaf and rill.
’Twas strange to hear that sad wild strain
Its warning music shed,
Rising above life’s busy train,
In memory of the dead.
There came a slow and silent band
In sad procession by:
Reversed the musket in each hand,
And downcast every eye.
They bore the soldier to his grave;
The sympathising crowd
Divided like a parted wave
By some dark vessel ploughed.
A moment, and all sounds were mute,
For awe was over all;
You heard the soldier's measured foot,
The bugle's wailing call.
The gloves were laid upon the bier,
The helmet and the sword,
The drooping war-horse followed near,
As he, too, mourned his lord.
Slowly—I followed too—they led
To where a church arose,
And flung a shadow o’er the dead,
Deep as their own repose.
Green trees were there—beneath the shade
Of one, was made a grave;
And there to his last rest was laid
The weary and the brave.
They fired a volley o’er the bed,
Of an unconscious ear;
The birds sprang fluttering over-head,
Struck with a sudden fear.
All left the ground, the bugles died
Away upon the wind;
Only the tree’s green branches sighed
O’er him they left behind.
Again, all filled with light and breath,
I passed the crowded street—
Oh, great extremes of life and death,
How strangely do ye meet!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH AIAI DJDJ KLKL MNMN XOXO PQRQ JSJS TMTM JPJR CUCU HVHV |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (93%) Etheree (28%) |
Metre | 10110111 010001 10111101 110101 11111101 1111001 011101 110101 01011101 1101010 01011101 0111010 111100101 110111 1101001 010101 11010101 111101 11010111 110101 11111111 110101 10011101 0100101 11010101 010101 01010011 011001 11010111 011 01010101 111101 01001101 111101 11010101 01101 01010101 010001 01011101 111111 10110111 110101 0101101 111101 11010101 111101 01111111 010001 110010101 11101 011100101 110101 11010101 010101 10011101 111101 01111101 110101 11011101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,951 |
Words | 336 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 97 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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"Scenes In London II - Oxford Street" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25700/scenes-in-london-ii---oxford-street>.
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