Analysis of Epilogue
Herman Melville 1819 – 1891
_If Luther's day expand to Darwin's year,_
_Shall that exclude the hope--foreclose the fear?_
Unmoved by all the claims our times avow,
The ancient Sphinx still keeps the porch of
shade;
And comes Despair, whom not her calm may
cow,
And coldly on that adamantine brow
Scrawls undeterred his bitter pasquinade.
But Faith (who from the scrawl indignant
turns)
With blood warm oozing from her wounded
trust,
Inscribes even on her shards of broken urns
The sign o' the cross--_the spirit above the dust!_
Yea, ape and angel, strife and old debate--
The harps of heaven and dreary gongs of hell;
Science the feud can only aggravate--
No umpire she betwixt the chimes and knell:
The running battle of the star and clod
Shall run forever--if there be no God.
Degrees we know, unknown in days before;
The light is greater, hence the shadow more;
And tantalized and apprehensive Man
Appealing--Wherefore ripen us to pain?
Seems there the spokesman of dumb Nature's
train.
But through such strange illusions have they
passed
Who in life's pilgrimage have baffled striven--
Even death may prove unreal at the last,
And stoics be astounded into heaven.
Then keep thy heart, though yet but
ill-resigned--
Clarel, thy heart, the issues there but mind;
That like the crocus budding through the
snow--
That like a swimmer rising from the deep--
That like a burning secret which doth go
Even from the bosom that would hoard and
keep;
Emerge thou mayst from the last whelming
sea,
And prove that death but routs life into victory.
Scheme | AA BXCDBACXEXXEC FGFGCX AAXHXH DIJIJ XKKXLMLXMXXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101111 1101010101 01110110101 010111011 1 010111011 1 0101111 1011101 111101010 1 111101010 1 01101011101 011011100101 1101010101 01110010111 100111010 1101010101 0101010101 1101011111 0111010101 011101011 01000101 010110111 110101110 1 111101011 1 10110011010 1011101101 01010100110 1111111 101 111010111 110101010 1 1101010101 1101010111 1010101110 1 01111011 1 011111101100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,477 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 13, 6, 6, 5, 12 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 200 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
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"Epilogue" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19062/epilogue>.
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