Analysis of And Yet
Arthur Henry Adams 1872 (Lawrence) – 1936 (Sydney, New South Wales)
THEY drew him from the darkened room,
Where, swooning in a peace profound,
Beneath a heavy fragrance drowned
Her grey form glimmered in the gloom.
Death smoothed from her each sordid trace
Of Life; at last he read the scroll;
For all the meaning of her soul
Flowered upon her perfect face.
“In other worlds her soul finds scope;
Her spirit lives; she is not dead,”
In his dulled ear they said and said,
Suave-murmuring the ancient Hope.
“You loved her; she was worthy love.
Think you her spheral soul can cease?
Nay, she has ripened to release
From this bare earth, and waits above.”
His brain their clamour heard aloof;
He, too, had said the self-same thing;
But now his heart was quivering
For more than comfort—parched for proof.
He put them from him. “Let me be;
You proffer in my bitter need
The coward comfort of a creed
That tears her soul apart from me.
“She waits in no drear Heaven afar.
Her woman's soul in all its worth,
Yearning for me, for homely earth,
No gates of beaten gold could bar.
“No, she is near me, ever close;
One with the world, but free again;
One with the breezes and the rain;
One with the mountain and the rose.
“She knows me not; her voice is dumb;
But aching through the twilight peers,
And, unremembering, yet with tears,
She strives to say she cannot come.
“Yes, she is changed, but not destroyed;
The words that were her soul are hushed;
The gem that was her heart is crushed—
Its fragments white stars in the void.
“And I shall see her in disguise;
In the grey vistas of the street
A face that hints of her I meet;
Whispers her soul from alien eyes.
“In Time's great garden, spring on spring,
The blossoms glow; then at a breath
Their petals flutter down to death—
Ah love, how brief your blossoming!
“Death has but severed part from part.
Borne on an ever-moving air
The fragrance of her life somewhere
Freshens some lonely wistful heart!
“No word of hers can God forget;
Her laughter Time dare not disperse;
It shakes the tense-strung universe,
And with the chord it trembles yet.
“Each mood of hers, each fancy slight,
In deep pulsations, ring on ring,
Dilating, ever-widening,
Ripples across the outer night.
“Her life with deathless charm was fraught,
And God with smiles remembers now
The puzzled pucker of her brow
Ruffled with sudden gusts of thought.
“And in His cosmic memory wise
Still live her subtle features thin,
Her dear iconoclastic chin,
The grave enigma of her eyes.
“And if beyond she might draw breath.
And know that I was not with her,
The wistful eyes of her despair
Would be more desolate than death.
“But not to meet her in the wide
Night-spaces I must wander through;
To kiss the pretty pout I knew,
And nevermore to hear her chide;
“To speak those childish words that were
So foolish-sweet, so passionate-wise;
Her subtle fragrance recognise
And hear the whispers of her hair! …
“Her sun has set; but still, sublime,
She is a star, of God a part;
She is a petal at the heart
Of the eternal flower of Time.
“I triumph so beyond regret,
I win her immortality:
Where, Death, your vaunted victory?
Where, Grave, your sting? And yet—and yet——!”
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFFEGHHGIJJIKLLK MNNMXXXXOXXOPQQPRSSRJTTJ UVVUWXXWYJJYZ1 1 ZR2 2 RT3 VT 4 5 5 4 3 RCV6 UU6 WKKW |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 11000101 01010101 0111001 11101101 11111101 11010101 10010011 01010111 01011111 01111101 11000101 11011101 1101111 11110101 11110101 1111101 11110111 11111100 11110111 11111111 11001101 01010101 11010111 110111001 01010111 10111101 11110111 11111101 11011101 11010001 11010001 11110111 1101011 01111 11111101 11111101 01100111 01110111 11011001 01110001 00110101 01111011 100111001 01110111 01011101 11010111 11111100 11110111 11110101 0101011 10110101 11101101 01011101 1101110 0101111 11101101 011111 110100 10010101 0111111 01110101 01010101 10110111 001101001 11010101 0100101 01010101 01011111 01111110 01011001 11110011 11110001 11011101 11010111 0101101 11110110 110111001 010101 01010101 01111101 11011101 11010101 100101011 11010101 1100100 11110100 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,301 |
Words | 567 |
Sentences | 30 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 24, 24, 24, 16 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 601 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 141 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 2:50 min read
- 92 Views
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"And Yet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3816/and-yet>.
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