Analysis of Etesia Absent

Henry Vaughan 1621 (Brecknockshire) – 1695



Love, the world's life! What a sad death
Thy absence is to lose our breath
At once and die, is but to live
Enlarged, without the scant reprieve
Of pulse and air: whose dull returns
And narrow circles the soul mourns.
But to be dead alive, and still
To wish, but never have our will:
To be possessed, and yet to miss;
To wed a true but absent bliss:
Are lingering tortures, and their smart
Dissects and racks and grinds the heart!
As soul and body in that state
Which unto us seems separate,
Cannot be said to live, until
Reunion; which days fulfil
And slow-paced seasons: so in vain
Through hours and minutes (Time's long train,)
I look for thee, and from thy sight,
As from my soul, for life and light.
For till thine eyes shine so on me,
Mine are fast-closed and will not see.


Scheme AABCDEFFGGHHIIFFJJKKLL
Poetic Form
Metre 10111011 110111101 11011111 01010101 11011101 01010011 11110101 111101101 11010111 11011101 110010011 01010101 11010011 1101110 10111101 010111 01110101 110010111 11110111 11111101 11111111 11110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 765
Words 151
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 22
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 600
Words per stanza (avg) 148
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
61

Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh author, physician and metaphysical poet. Vaughan and his twin brother, the hermetic philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales. Their grandfather, William, was the owner of Tretower Court. Vaughan spent most of his life in the village of Llansantffraed, near Brecon, where he is also buried. more…

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