Analysis of A Dead March
PLAY me a march, low-ton’d and slow—a march for a silent tread,
Fit for the wandering feet of one who dreams of the silent dead,
Lonely, between the bones below and the souls that are overhead.
Here for a while they smil’d and sang, alive in the interspace,
Here with the grass beneath the foot, and the stars above the face,
Now are their feet beneath the grass, and whither has flown their grace?
Who shall assure us whence they come, or tell us the way they go?
Verily, life with them was joy, and, now they have left us, woe,
Once they were not, and now they are not, and this is the sum we know.
Orderly range the seasons due, and orderly roll the stars.
How shall we deem the soldier brave who frets of his wounds and scars?
Are we as senseless brutes that we should dash at the well-seen bars?
No, we are here, with feet unfix’d, but ever as if with lead
Drawn from the orbs which shine above to the orb on which we tread,
Down to the dust from which we came and with which we shall mingle dead.
No, we are here to wait, and work, and strain our banish’d eyes,
Weary and sick of soil and toil, and hungry and fain for skies
Far from the reach of wingless men, and not to be scal’d with cries.
No, we are here to bend our necks to the yoke of tyrant Time,
Welcoming all the gifts he gives us—glories of youth and prime,
Patiently watching them all depart as our heads grow white as rime.
Why do we mourn the days that go—for the same sun shines each day,
Ever a spring her primrose hath, and ever a May her may;
Sweet as the rose that died last year is the rose that is born to-day.
Do we not too return, we men, as ever the round earth whirls?
Never a head is dimm’d with gray but another is sunn’d with curls;
She was a girl and he was a boy, but yet there are boys and girls.
Ah, but alas for the smile of smiles that never but one face wore;
Ah, for the voice that has flown away like a bird to an unseen shore;
Ah, for the face—the flower of flowers—that blossoms on earth no more.
Scheme | AAA BBB CCC BBB AAA BBB DDD EEE BBB FFF |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111010110101 1101001111110101 1001010100111101 1101110101001 110101010010101 111101010101111 110111111110111 1111110111111 1101011110110111 100101010100101 111101011111101 111101111110111 11111111101111 110111011011111 1101111101111101 11111101011011 100111010100111 11011110111111 1111111011011101 100101111101101 10010110111011111 111101111011111 10010110100101 1101111110111111 111101111100111 1001111110101111 1101011011111101 1101101111101111 11011110110111011 11010101101101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 2,056 |
Words | 399 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 51 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 152 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:59 min read
- 94 Views
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"A Dead March" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39755/a-dead-march>.
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