Analysis of The Taj-Mahal, at Agra - The Tomb of Muntaza Zemani
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
"Aye, build it on these banks," the monarch said,
"That when the autumn winds have swept the sea,
They may come hither with their falling rains,
A voice of mighty weeping o'er her grave."
They brought the purest marble that the earth
E'er treasured from the sun, and ivory
Was never yet more delicately carved :
Then cupolas were raised, and minarets,
And flights of lofty steps, and one vast dome
Rose till it met the clouds : richly inlaid
With red and black, this palace of the dead
Exhausted wealth and skill. Around its walls
The cypresses like funeral columns stood,
And lamps perpetual burnt beside the tomb.
And yet the emperor felt it was in vain,
A desolate magnificence that mocked
The lost one, and the loved, which it enshrined.
Muntaza Zemani was the wife of Shah Jehan, emperor of Hindostan. The magnificent mausoleum, which it was some consolation to erect, was one of the many human vanities that mock their founders. Shah Jehan past from a prison to his gorgeous tomb. For the last eight years of his life he was confined in the fort of Agra, by his son, Aurungzebe. An Italian artist, who saw this most exquisite specimen of Mahommedan architecture, regretted there was not a glass-case to cover it. The pure whiteness of the marble is powerfully contrasted to the dark green of its avenue of cypresses.
Scheme | ABXX XBXXXXAXXXXXX B |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111011 1101011101 1111011101 01110101001 1101010101 10101010100 1101110001 1101001 0111010111 111101101 1101110101 0101010111 011100101 01010010101 01010011101 0100111 0110011101 11101111100110010001011110101011110101010011110111101011101101111111101001110111110101011111001001110001011101111010110101011000101011111011 |
Characters | 1,305 |
Words | 233 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 13, 1 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 58 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 350 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 78 |
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