Analysis of Commemoration
Sir Henry Newbolt 1862 (Bilston, Staffordshire) – 1938 (Kensington, London)
I sat by the granite pillar, and sunlight fell
Where the sunlight fell of old,
And the hour was the hour my heart remembered well,
And the sermon rolled and rolled
As it used to roll when the place was still unhaunted,
And the strangest tale in the world was still untold.
And I knew that of all this rushing of urgent sound
That I so clearly heard,
The green young forest of saplings clustered round
Was heeding not one word:
Their heads were bowed in a still serried patience
Such as an angel's breath could never have stirred.
For some were already away to the hazardous pitch,
Or lining the parapet wall,
And some were in glorious battle, or great and rich,
Or throned in a college hall:
And among the rest was one like my own young phantom,
Dreaming for ever beyond my utmost call.
'O Youth,' the preacher was crying, 'deem not thou
Thy life is thine alone;
Thou bearest the will of the ages, seeing how
They built thee bone by bone,
And within thy blood the Great Age sleeps sepulchred
Till thou and thine shall roll away the stone.
'Therefore the days are coming when thou shalt burn
With passion whitely hot;
Rest shall be rest no more; thy feet shall spurn
All that thy hand hath got;
And One that is stronger shall gird thee, and lead thee swiftly
Whither, O heart of Youth, thou wouldest not.'
And the School passed; and I saw the living and dead
Set in their seats again,
And I longed to hear them speak of the word that was said,
But I knew that I longed in vain.
And they stretched forth their hands, and the wind of the spirit took them
Lightly as drifted leaves on an endless plain.
Scheme | ABABBB CDCDXD EFEFXF GHGHBH IJIJXJ KXKLXL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101010011 101111 00101010110101 0010101 11111101111 001010011101 0111111101101 111101 01110110101 110111 1101001110 1111111011 11001001101001 1100101 0100100101101 1100101 0010111111110 1011001111 11010110111 111101 11011010101 111111 0011101111 1101110101 1011101111 110101 1111111111 111111 01111011101110 101111111 001101101001 101101 0111111101111 11111101 011111001101011 10110111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,571 |
Words | 306 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 210 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 98 Views
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"Commemoration" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35119/commemoration>.
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