Analysis of Dead Before Death
Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)
Ah! changed and cold, how changed and very cold,
With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes:
Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise;
This was the promise of the days of old!
Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould,
Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies:
We hoped for better things as years would rise,
But it is over as a tale once told.
All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore,
All lost the present and the future time,
All lost, all lost, the lapse that went before:
So lost till death shut-to the opened door,
So lost from chime to everlasting chime,
So cold and lost for ever evermore.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDCCDC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110101 1101010111 1101110101 1101010111 1101000101 1100011111 1111011111 1111010111 1100101111 1101000101 1111011101 1111110101 111110101 110111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 611 |
Words | 117 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 480 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 274 Views
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"Dead Before Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5774/dead-before-death>.
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