Analysis of Graves Of Infants

John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)



Infant' graves are steps of angels, where
Earth's brightest gems of innocence repose.
God is their parent, and they need no tear;
He takes them to His bosom from earth's woes,
A bud their lifetime and a flower their close.
Their spirits are an Iris of the skies,
Needing no prayers; a sunset's happy close.
Gone are the bright rays of their soft blue eyes;
Flowers weep in dew-drops oer them, and the gale gently sighs

Their lives were nothing but a sunny shower,
Melting on flowers as tears melt from the eye.
Their deaths were dew-drops on Heaven's amaranth bower,
And tolled on flowers as Summer gales went by.
They bowed and trembled, and they left no sigh,
And the sun smiled to show their end was well.
Infants have nought to weep for ere they die;
All prayers are needless, beads they need not tell,
White flowers their mourners are, Nature their passing bell.


Scheme ABABCDCDD EFEFFGFGG
Poetic Form
Metre 101111101 1101110001 1111001111 1111110111 0111001011 1101110101 101101101 1101111111 10101111001101 11010101010 10110111101 110111101010 01110110111 1101001111 0011111111 1011111111 1111011111 1101101101101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 858
Words 158
Sentences 8
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 9, 9
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 38
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 341
Words per stanza (avg) 78
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
65

John Clare

John Clare was an English poet in his time he was commonly known as the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet more…

All John Clare poems | John Clare Books

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