Analysis of On An Old Roundel
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
Death, from thy rigour a voice appealed,
And men still hear what the sweet cry saith,
Crying aloud in thine ears fast sealed,
Death.
As a voice in a vision that vanisheth,
Through the grave's gate barred and the portal steeled
The sound of the wail of it travelleth.
Wailing aloud from a heart unhealed,
It woke response of melodious breath
From lips now too by thy kiss congealed,
Death
Ages ago, from the lips of a sad glad poet
Whose soul was a wild dove lost in the whirling snow,
The soft keen plaint of his pain took voice to show it
Ages ago.
So clear, so deep, the divine drear accents flow,
No soul that listens may choose but thrill to know it,
Pierced and wrung by the passionate music's throe.
For us there murmurs a nearer voice below it,
Known once of ears that never again shall know,
Now mute as the mouth which felt death's wave o'erflow it
Ages ago.
Scheme | abaB bab abaB xcdC cdx dcdC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 011110111 100101111 1 101001011 1011100101 01101111 10011011 1101101001 111111101 1 1001101101110 111011100101 011111111111 1001 11110011101 111101111111 10110100101 111100101011 11111100111 11101111111 1001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 865 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 113 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 46 Views
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"On An Old Roundel" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1371/on-an-old-roundel>.
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