Analysis of Troth with the Dead
David Herbert Lawrence 1885 (Eastwood, Nottinghamshire) – 1930 (Vence)
The moon is broken in twain, and half a moon
Before me lies on the still, pale floor of the sky;
The other half of the broken coin of troth
Is buried away in the dark, where the still dead lie.
They buried her half in the grave when they laid her away;
I had pushed it gently in among the thick of her hair
Where it gathered towards the plait, on that very last day;
And like a moon in secret it is shining there.
My half shines in the sky, for a general sign
Of the troth with the dead I pledged myself to keep;
Turning its broken edge to the dark, it shines indeed
Like the sign of a lover who turns to the dark of sleep.
Against my heart the inviolate sleep breaks still
In darkened waves whose breaking echoes o’er
The wondering world of my wakeful day, till I’m lost
In the midst of the places I knew so well before.
Scheme | XAXABCBC XDXDXCXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110010101 011110111101 01011010111 1100100110111 11001001111001 11111000101101 11100101111011 010101011101 111001101001 10110111111 1011011011101 10110101110111 011100100111 0101110101 010011111111 0011010111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 835 |
Words | 168 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 320 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 83 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
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