Analysis of Pain And Time Strive Not

William Morris 1834 (Walthamstow) – 1896 (London)



What part of the dread eternity
Are those strange minutes that I gain,
Mazed with the doubt of love and pain,
When I thy delicate face may see,
A little while before farewell?

What share of the world’s yearning-tide
That flash, when new day bare and white
Blots out my half-dream’s faint delight,
And there is nothing by my side,
And well remembered is farewell?

What drop in the grey flood of tears
That time, when the long day toiled through,
Worn out, shows nought for me to do,
And nothing worth my labour bears
The longing of that last farewell?

What pity from the heavens above,
What heed from out eternity,
What word from the swift world for me?
Speak, heed, and pity, O tender love,
Who knew’st the days before farewell!


Scheme ABBAC DEEDC FGGFC HAAHC
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 111010100 11110111 11011101 111100111 0101011 11101101 11111101 11111101 01110111 0101011 11001111 11101111 11111111 0101111 0101111 110101001 11110100 11101111 110101101 1101011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 723
Words 135
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 143
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
105

William Morris

William Morris, Mayor of Galway, 1527-28. more…

All William Morris poems | William Morris Books

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