Analysis of Death. A Dialogue
Henry Vaughan 1621 (Brecknockshire) – 1695
'TIS a sad Land, that in one day
Hath dull'd thee thus ; when death shall freeze
Thy blood to ice, and thou must stay
Tenant for years, and centuries ;
How wilt thou brook't ?
I cannot tell ;
But if all sense wings not with thee,
And something still be left the dead,
I'll wish my curtains off, to free
Me from so dark and sad a bed :
A nest of nights, a gloomy sphere,
Where shadows thicken, and the cloud
Sits on the sun's brow all the year,
And nothing moves without a shroud.
'Tis so : but as thou saw'st that night
We travail'd in, our first attempts
Were dull and blind, but custom straight
Our fears and falls brought to contempt :
Then, when the ghastly twelve was past,
We breath'd still for a blushing East,
And bade the lazy sun make haste,
And on sure hopes, though long, did feast.
But when we saw the clouds to crack,
And in those crannies light appear'd,
We thought the day then was not slack,
And pleas'd ourselves with what we fear'd.
Just so it is in death. But thou
Shalt in thy mother's bosom sleep,
Whilst I each minute groan to know
How near Redemption creeps.
Then shall wee meet to mix again, and met,
'Tis last good-night ; our Sun shall never set.
JOB, CAP. IO. VER. 21, 22.
Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the
land of darkness, and the shadow of death ;
A Land of darkness, as darkness itself, and of the
shadow of death, without any order, and where the
light is as darkness.
Scheme | ABABC XCDCD EFEF XXXX XGXG HIHI XXXX JJ X KXKKX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111011 11111111 11110111 10110100 11111 1101 11111111 01011101 11110111 11110101 01110101 1110001 11011101 01010101 111111111 11010101 01011101 101011101 11010111 11110101 01010111 01111111 11110111 00110101 11011111 010011111 11110111 10110101 11110111 110101 1111110101 11111011101 11101 01111111011010 111000111 0111011001010 111011010010 11110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,438 |
Words | 274 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 1, 5 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 119 Views
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"Death. A Dialogue" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18424/death.-a-dialogue>.
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