Analysis of The Right to Die
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
I have no fancy for that ancient cant
That makes us masters of our destinies,
And not our lives, to hold or give them up
As will directs; I cannot, will not think
That men, the subtle worms, who plot and plan
And scheme and calculate with such shrewd wit,
Are such great blund'ring fools as not to know
When they have lived enough.
Men court not death
When there are sweets still left in life to taste.
Nor will a brave man choose to live when he,
Full deeply drunk of life, has reached the dregs,
And knows that now but bitterness remains.
He is the coward who, outfaced in this,
Fears the false goblins of another life.
I honor him who being much harassed
Drinks of sweet courage until drunk of it,-
Then seizing Death, reluctant, by the hand,
Leaps with him, fearless, to eternal peace!
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPFQR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011101 11110110100 01101111111 1101110111 1101011101 010101111 111111111 111101 1111 1111110111 1101111111 1101111101 0111110001 110101101 1011010101 1101110101 1111001111 1101010101 1111010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 779 |
Words | 151 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 19 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 617 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 148 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 20, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 89 Views
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"The Right to Die" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28942/the-right-to-die>.
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