Analysis of On the Deaths of Thomas Carlyle and George Eliot: Sonnets

Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)



TWO SOULS diverse out of our human sight
Pass, followed one with love and each with wonder:
The stormy sophist with his mouth of thunder,
Clothed with loud words and mantled in the might
Of darkness and magnificence of night;
And one whose eye could smite the night in sunder,
Searching if light or no light were thereunder,
And found in love of loving-kindness light.
Duty divine and Thought with eyes of fire
Still following Righteousness with deep desire
Shone sole and stern before her and above,
Sure stars and sole to steer by; but more sweet
Shone lower the loveliest lamp for earthly feet,
The light of little children, and their love.


Scheme ABBAABBABBCDDC
Poetic Form
Metre 11011110101 11011101110 0101111110 111101001 1100111 01111101010 101111101 0101110101 10010111110 110010011010 1101010001 1101111111 1100111101 0111010011
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 638
Words 115
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 518
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

34 sec read
139

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as Poems and Ballads, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, cannibalism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the ocean, time, and death. Several historical people are featured in his poems, such as Sappho ("Sapphics"), Anactoria ("Anactoria"), Jesus ("Hymn to Proserpine": Galilaee, La. "Galilean") and Catullus ("To Catullus"). more…

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    A poem consisting of 14 lines, typically with a specific rhyme scheme, is called a _______.
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