Analysis of The Ringing of a Bell at 6 Noon



I’ve seen glimmers, perhaps it was the sheen off a sheet?
And heard the solemn accord for the dead and their whiles
Blessed with the strum of the string that into nullity
Became the avant-gardes for another world.

With the ringing of the death knoll the harp and maiden were brought to crime
Beyond the foreshadowing of glory, doom, spite and pride, and envy
Of the rise and set of the moon,
Red and pale against the sullen portrait of a night sky from many ages ago
Lost to the depth of status only one sense was left to that hound
Who looked up perhaps a little too shallow in a very narrow hole
With a setting moon; precious depraved wondrous mad,
And yet it is the tale that Alice was committed to.

Perhaps the shock of a wave is proof that by and by life with its masquerade
Has made a dune on an ocean shore, deep within its labyrinth
That it be born and then die in the same afternoon an incessant quest in equanimity
And that it live against its purpose proof of an unverifiable thing,
That time is human, humble in all but substance.


Scheme AXAX XBXXXXXX XXBXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1110011101101 0101001101011 11011011011 01001110101 10101011010100111 01001001101101010 10101101 101010101010111101001 1101110101111111 111010101100010101 101011001101 01110111010101 010110111110111101 110111101101110 1111011001011010100100 011101110111001001 111101001110
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,028
Words 198
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 8, 5
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 49
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 276
Words per stanza (avg) 66
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Submitted on February 02, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

59 sec read
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swal

A uni 1st year student at UBC. more…

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