Analysis of Time And The Earth

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



Time and the Earth -
The old Father and Mother -
Their teeming accomplished,
Their purpose fulfilled,
Close with a smile
For a moment of kindness,
Ere for the winter
They settle to sleep.

Failing yet gracious,
Slow pacing, soon homing,
A patriarch that strolls
Through the tents of his children,
The Sun, as he journeys
His round on the lower
Ascents of the blue,
Washes the roofs
And the hillsides with clarity;
Charms the dark pools
Till they break into pictures;
Scatters magnificent
Alms to the beggar trees;
Touches the mist-folk,
That crowd to his escort,
Into translucencies
Radiant and ravishing:
As with the visible
Spirit of Summer
Gloriously vaporised,
Visioned in gold!

Love, though the fallen leaf
Mark, and the fleeting light
And the loud, loitering
Footfall of darkness
Sign to the heart
Of the passage of destiny,
Here is the ghost
Of a summer that lived for us,
Here is a promise
Of summers to be.


Scheme XABXXCAX CDXXEAXXFXXXEXXCDXABX XXDCXFXCCF
Poetic Form
Metre 1001 0110010 110010 11001 1101 1010110 11010 11011 10110 110110 01011 1011110 011110 111010 1101 1001 0011100 1011 1110110 10100 110101 10011 111101 011 1000100 110100 10110 10001 101 110101 100101 001100 1110 1101 10101100 1101 10101111 11010 11011
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 884
Words 161
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 21, 10
Lines Amount 39
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 243
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
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William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

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