Dirge
Herman Melville 1819 – 1891
We drop our dead in the sea,
The bottomless, bottomless sea;
Each bubble a hollow sigh,
As it sinks forever and aye.
We drop our dead in the sea,--
The dead reek not of aught;
We drop our dead in the sea,--
The sea ne'er gives it a thought.
Sink, sink, oh corpse, still sink,
Far down in the bottomless sea,
Where the unknown forms do prowl,
Down, down in the bottomless sea.
'Tis night above, and night all round,
And night will it be with thee;
As thou sinkest, and sinkest for aye,
Deeper down in the bottomless sea.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 31 sec read
- 72 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | Aabb AcAc xaxa caba |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 512 |
Words | 104 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Dirge" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/19060/dirge>.
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