Analysis of Terminus
It is time to be old,
To take in sail:--
The god of bounds,
Who sets to seas a shore,
Come to me in his fatal rounds,
And said: "No more!
No farther shoot
Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root.
Fancy departs; no more invent;
Contract thy firmament
To compass of a tent.
There's not enough for this and that,
Make thy option which of two;
Economize the failing river,
Not the less revere the Giver,
Leave the many and hold the few.
Timely wise accept the terms,
Soften the fall with wary foot;
A little while
Still plan and smile,
And,--fault of novel germs,--
Mature the unfallen fruit.
Curse, if thou wilt, thy sires,
Bad husbands of their fires,
Who, when they gave thee breath,
Failed to bequeath
The needful sinew stark as once.
The baresark marrow to thy bones,
But left a legacy of ebbing veins,
Inconstant heat and nerveless reins,--
Amid the Muses, left thee deaf and dumb,
Amid the gladiators, halt and numb."
As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
"Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed."
Scheme | ABCDCDEEFAFXGHHGIXJJIEXXXXXXKKLL BMBMNONO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (25%) Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 111111 1101 0111 111101 11101101 0111 1101 1101010011 10011101 111 110101 11011101 1110111 01001010 10101010 10100101 1010101 10011101 0101 1101 011101 01011 111111 1101110 111111 1101 0101111 0110111 1101001101 11011 0101011101 010100101 10110101 11110111 11010101 0101110111 1010101 110101 01110111 0100111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,203 |
Words | 228 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 32, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 457 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 110 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 432 Views
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"Terminus" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29857/terminus>.
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