Analysis of A Shadow of the Night
Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)
Close on the edge of a midsummer dawn
In troubled dreams I went from land to land,
Each seven-colored like the rainbow's arc,
Regions where never fancy's foot had trod
Till then; yet all the strangeness seemed not strange,
At which I wondered, reasoning in my dream
With twofold sense, well knowing that I slept.
At last I came to this our cloud-hung earth,
And somewhere by the seashore was a grave,
A woman's grave, new-made, and heaped with flowers;
And near it stood an ancient holy man
That fain would comfort me, who sorrowed not
For this unknown dead woman at my feet.
But I, because his sacred office held
My reverence, listened; and 'twas thus he spake:--
'When next thou comest thou shalt find her still
In all the rare perfection that she was.
Thou shalt have gentle greeting of thy love!
Her eyelids will have turned to violets,
Her bosom to white lilies, and her breath
To roses. What is lovely never dies,
But passes into other loveliness,
Star-dust, or sea-foam, flower, or winged air.
If this befalls our poor unworthy flesh,
Think thee what destiny awaits the soul!
What glorious vesture it shall wear at last!'
While yet he spoke, seashore and grave and priest
Vanished, and faintly from a neighboring spire
Fell five slow solemn strokes upon my ear.
Then I awoke with a keen pain at heart,
A sense of swift unutterable loss,
And through the darkness reached my hand to touch
Her cheek, soft-pillowed on one restful palm--
To be quite sure!
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUJVWXYZ1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101101101 0101111111 110101011 101101111 1111010111 11110100011 1111110111 11111110111 01101101 01011101110 0111110101 111101111 1101110111 1101110101 11001001111 111111101 0101010111 1111010111 011111100 0101110001 1101110101 11001101 1111110111 11011010101 1111000101 1100111111 111110101 10010101001 1111010111 1101101111 011111 0101011111 011111101 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,433 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 34 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 259 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 101 Views
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