Analysis of Elegy:The End of Funeral Elegies
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
MADAM—
That I might make your cabinet my tomb,
And for my fame, which I love next my soul,
Next to my soul provide the happiest room,
Admit to that place this last funeral scroll.
Others by wills give legacies, but I
Dying, of you do beg a legacy.
My fortune and my will this custom break,
When we are senseless grown to make stones speak,
Though no stone tell thee what I was, yet thou
In my grave's inside seest what thou art now,
Yet thou 'rt not yet so good ; till death us lay
To ripe and mellow there, we're stubborn clay.
Parents make us earth, and souls dignify
Us to be glass ; here to grow gold we lie.
Whilst in our souls sin bred and pamper'd is,
Our souls become worm-eaten carcases.
Scheme | XABABCD XXEEFFCCXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10 1111110011 0111111111 11110101001 01111111001 1011110011 1011110100 1100111101 1111011111 1111111111 0110111111 11111111111 1101011101 101110110 1111111111 10101110101 101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 705 |
Words | 137 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 10 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 267 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 69 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 08, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 150 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Elegy:The End of Funeral Elegies" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22495/elegy%3Athe-end-of-funeral-elegies>.
Discuss this John Donne 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