Analysis of Sonnet -- Ye Hasten To The Grave!

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



Ye hasten to the grave! What seek ye there,
Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes
Of the idle brain, which the world's livery wear?
O thou quick heart, which pantest to possess
All that pale Expectation feigneth fair!
Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess
Whence thou didst come, and whither thou must go,
And all that never yet was known would know--
Oh, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press,
With such swift feet life's green and pleasant path,
Seeking, alike from happiness and woe,
A refuge in the cavern of gray death?
O heart, and mind, and thoughts! what thing do you
Hope to inherit in the grave below?


Scheme ABACACDDCEDFGD
Poetic Form
Metre 1101011111 1101010100 101011011001 111111101 11101011 1101001111 1111010111 0111011111 1101011111 1111110101 1001110001 0100010111 1101011111 1101000101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 617
Words 113
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 487
Words per stanza (avg) 111
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

34 sec read
125

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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