Analysis of Rome at the Pyramid of Cestius Near the Graves of Shelley and Keats (1887)
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Who, then, was Cestius,
And what is he to me? -
Amid thick thoughts and memories multitudinous
One thought alone brings he.
I can recall no word
Of anything he did;
For me he is a man who died and was interred
To leave a pyramid
Whose purpose was exprest
Not with its first design,
Nor till, far down in Time, beside it found their rest
Two countrymen of mine.
Cestius in life, maybe,
Slew, breathed out threatening;
I know not. This I know: in death all silently
He does a kindlier thing,
In beckoning pilgrim feet
With marble finger high
To where, by shadowy wall and history-haunted street,
Those matchless singers lie . . .
--Say, then, he lived and died
That stones which bear his name
Should mark, through Time, where two immortal Shades abide;
It is an ample fame.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD CEXE BFBF GHGH IJIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1111 011111 011101001 110111 11111 11011 11110111011 110100 11011 111101 111101011111 110011 10110 111100 111111011100 11011 0100101 110101 11110010100101 11101 111101 111111 111111010101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 830 |
Words | 141 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 67 Views
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"Rome at the Pyramid of Cestius Near the Graves of Shelley and Keats (1887)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36447/rome-at-the-pyramid-of-cestius-near-the-graves-of-shelley-and-keats-%281887%29>.
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