Analysis of On a wife's death
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832 (Kvikne) – 1910 (Paris)
With death's dark eye acquainted she had been made ere this,
When to her son, her first-born, she gave the farewell kiss,
And when afar she hastened beside her mother's bed,
It followed all her faring with warning fraught and dread;
It filled her with foreboding when standing by the bier:
More sheaves to gather hopeth the harvester austere.
So soon she saw her husband, that man of strength, succumb,
She said with sorrow stricken: « I knew that it would come!'
She thought that he was chosen by God from earth to go,
Would check, her hands upthrusting, the harsh behest of woe;
And with her slender body, too weak for such a strife,
Would ward her gallant consort,-and gave for him her life.
She smiled, serene and blissful, as death's dark eye she braved;
Her sacrifice was given, her heart's proud hero saved.
Our love and admiration lifted a starry dome
Of happiness above her in life's last hour of gloam,
And snow-white pure she passed then to her eternal home.
Such tender love and holy to heaven's bounds can bear
The souls that it embraces in sacrifice and prayer.
Scheme | AABBXXCCDDEE FFGGGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111111 110101111011 0101110010101 1101010110101 1101010110101 111101010001 1111010111101 1111010111111 1111110111111 11011010111 0101010111101 1101001011101 1101010111111 010110011101 1010010100101 11000100111011 0111111100101 1101010110111 011101001001 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,066 |
Words | 196 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 7 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 44 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 422 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 96 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 120 Views
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