Analysis of Lonely Burial

Stephen Vincent Benet 1898 (Bethlehem) – 1943 (New York City)



There were not many at that lonely place,
Where two scourged hills met in a little plain.
The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again.
Three pines strained darkly, runners in a race
Unseen by any. Toward the further woods
A dim harsh noise of voices rose and ceased.
-- We were most silent in those solitudes --
Then, sudden as a flame, the black-robed priest,

The clotted earth piled roughly up about
The hacked red oblong of the new-made thing,
Short words in swordlike Latin -- and a rout
Of dreams most impotent, unwearying.
Then, like a blind door shut on a carouse,
The terrible bareness of the soul's last house.


Scheme AXXAXBAB CDCDXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1011011101 1111100101 0111011101 1111010001 01110010101 0111110101 10110011 1101010111 0101110101 0111010111 110110001 1111001 1101111001 0100110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 628
Words 115
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 242
Words per stanza (avg) 57
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
96

Stephen Vincent Benet

Stephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. more…

All Stephen Vincent Benet poems | Stephen Vincent Benet Books

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