Analysis of Sonnet: Oh! Death Will Find Me, Long Before I Tire

Rupert Brooke 1887 (Rugby) – 1915 (Aegean Sea)



Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire
Of watching you; and swing me suddenly
Into the shade and loneliness and mire
Of the last land! There, waiting patiently,

One day, I think, I’ll feel a cool wind blowing,
See a slow light across the Stygian tide,
And hear the Dead about me stir, unknowing,
And tremble. And I shall know that you have died,

And watch you, a broad-browed and smiling dream,
Pass, light as ever, through the lightless host,
Quietly ponder, start, and sway, and gleam—
Most individual and bewildering ghost!—

And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead.


Scheme XAXA BCBC DEDE FF
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101110 1101011100 0101010001 1011110100 11111101110 10110101001 01010111010 01001111111 0110110101 111101011 1001010101 10100001001 0101110101 1010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 622
Words 110
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 2
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 119
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

33 sec read
87

Rupert Brooke

Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". more…

All Rupert Brooke poems | Rupert Brooke Books

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