Analysis of When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
When coldness wraps this suffering clay,
Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?
It cannot die, it cannot stay,
But leaves its darken'd dust behind.
Then, unembodied, doth it trace
By steps each planet's heavenly way?
Or fill at once the realms of space,
A thing of eyes, that all survey?
Eternal, boundless, undecay'd,
A thought unseen, but seeing all,
All, all in earth or skies display'd,
Shall it survey, shall it recall:
Each fainter trace that memory holds
So darkly of departed years,
In one broad glance the soul beholds,
And all, that was, at once appears.
Before Creation peopled earth,
Its eye shall roll through chaos back;
And where the farthest heaven had birth,
The spirit trace its rising track.
And where the future mars or makes,
Its glance dilate o'er all to be,
While sun is quench'd or system breaks,
Fix'd in its own eternity.
Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear,
It lives all passionless and pure:
An age shall fleet like earthly year;
Its years as moments shall endure.
Away, away, without a wing,
O'er all, through all, its thought shall fly,
A nameless and eternal thing,
Forgetting what it was to die.
Scheme | ABABCACA BDXDXECE FGFGHIHI JKJKLMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111001 110100101 11011101 11110101 11111 111101001 11110111 01111101 010101 01011101 11011101 1101111 110111001 11010101 0111011 01111101 01010101 11111101 010101011 01011101 01010111 110110111 11111101 10110100 01111111 111101 11111101 11110101 01010101 101111111 01000101 01011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,102 |
Words | 199 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 218 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 162 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15315/when-coldness-wraps-this-suffering-clay>.
Discuss this George Gordon Lord Byron poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In