Analysis of Forever

"Forever": 'tis a single word!
   Our rude forefathers deemed it two:
 Can you imagine so absurd
       A view?

"Forever"! What abysms of woe
   The word reveals, what frenzy, what
 Despair! "For ever" (printed so)
       Did not.

It looks, ah me! how trite and tame!
   It fails to sadden or appal
 Or solace--it is not the same
       At all.

O thou to whom it first occurred
   To solder the disjoined, and dower
 The native language with a word
       Of power:

We bless thee! Whether far or near
   Thy dwelling, whether dark or fair
 Thy kingly brow, is neither here
       Nor there.

But in men's hearts shall be thy throne,
   While the great pulse of England beats.
 Thou coiner of a word unknown
       To Keats!

And nevermore must printer do
   As men did long ago; but run
 "For" into "ever," bidding two
       Be one.

"Forever"! passion-fraught, it throws
   O'er the dim page a gloom, a glamour:
 It's sweet, it's strange; and I suppose
       It's grammar.

"Forever"! 'Tis a single word!
   And yet our fathers deemed it two:
 Nor am I confident they erred;
       Are you?