Analysis of In Memoriam Matris
Arthur Patchett Martin 1851 (Woolwich, Kent) – 1902 (Tenerife)
IN my hot youth I rashly penned
A Sonnet of the After-life.
It was the time of stress and strife
Through which the ardent soul must wend.
It was the Spring-time of my days,
When Doubt, like an inspired sage,
With creeds did eager warfare wage,
And looked with scorn on ancient ways.
But gazing back across the years
That separate my youth from me,
These words and thoughts now seem to be
All dim, as through a mist of tears.
For then I saw, with eager eyes,
A coming world where joy would reign,
And evil pass away, and pain,
When man was rid of priestly ties.
While now I turn a backward gaze
On visions fled, and vanished hours,
On dead dry leaves and perished flow'rs,
That make the story of my days.
And midway on that dreary track
I see a grave-stone, standing white —
Far off. I see it in the night;
It says, “Thy mother comes not back.”
We brought her from the Austral land,
To this the land that gave her birth;
We laid her cold, in English earth,
My sire and I — and now we stand,
Like aliens, on a dreary shore,
Though once he fondly called it “Home.”
Now, old and mateless, he would roam
Back to that southern land once more.
For there her spirit seems to be,
There lie her babes beneath the sod;
And there, but for the hand of God,
Her grandchild would have climbed her knee.
* * * * *
These verses of the heedless Past,
They echo not my saddened thought,
— I held that after death came nought:
The earth was not then on her cast.
Denial now is dumb within,
Without I can but grope my way,
And trust that in some brighter day
Man's soul shall live — absolved of sin.
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFFGHIIHCJCCKLLKMNNMOPPOFQQF RSARTUUT |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 0111111 01010101 11011101 11010111 11011111 11110101 1111011 01111101 11010101 1101111 11011111 11110111 11111101 01011111 01010101 11111101 11110101 110101010 11110101 11010111 0111101 11011101 11111001 11110111 11010101 11011101 11010101 110010111 110010101 11110111 1101111 11110111 11010111 11010101 01110111 0111101 1 1101011 11011101 11110111 01111101 01011101 01111111 01101101 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,558 |
Words | 314 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 45 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,203 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 310 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:34 min read
- 51 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"In Memoriam Matris" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3914/in-memoriam-matris>.
Discuss this Arthur Patchett Martin poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In