Analysis of When The Lamp Is Shattered
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
When the lamp is shattered,
The light in the dust lies dead;
When the cloud is scattered,
The rainbow's glory is shed;
When the lute is broken,
Sweet tones are remembered not;
When the lips have spoken,
Loved accents are soon forgot.
As music and splendor
Survive not the lamp and the lute,
The heart's echoes render
No song when the spirit is mute:--
No song but sad dirges,
Like the wind through a ruined cell,
Or the mournful surges
That ring the dead seaman's knell.
When hearts have once mingled,
Love first leaves the well-built nest;
The weak one is singled
To endure what it once possessed.
O Love! who bewailest
The frailty of all things here,
Why choose you the frailest
For your cradle, your home, and your bier?
Its passions will rock thee,
As the storms rock the ravens on high;
Bright reason will mock thee,
Like the sun from a wintry sky.
From thy nest every rafter
Will rot, and thine eagle home
Leave thee naked to laughter,
When leaves fall and cold winds come.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJAKAK LMLMEXEX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101110 0100111 101110 011011 101110 1110101 101110 1101101 110010 01101001 011010 11101011 11111 10110101 101010 1101101 111110 1110111 011110 10111101 1111 0101111 11101 111011011 110111 101101011 110111 10110101 11110010 1101101 1110110 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,016 |
Words | 182 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 393 Views
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