Analysis of Consolations in Bereavement
John Henry Newman 1801 (London) – 1890 (Edgbaston)
Death was full urgent with thee, Sister dear,
And startling in his speed;—
Brief pain, then languor till thy end came near—
Such was the path decreed,
The hurried road
To lead thy soul from earth to thine own God's
abode.
Death wrought with thee, sweet maid, impatiently:—
Yet merciful the haste
That baffles sickness;—dearest, thou didst die,
Thou wast not made to taste
Death's bitterness,
Decline's slow-wasting charm, or fever's fierce
distress.
Death came unheralded:—but it was well;
For so thy Saviour bore
Kind witness, thou wast meet at once to dwell
On His eternal shore;
All warning spared,
For none He gives where hearts are for prompt change
prepared.
Death wrought in mystery; both complaint and cure
To human skill unknown:—
God put aside all means, to make us sure
It was His deed alone;
Lest we should lay
Reproach on our poor selves, that thou wast caught
away.
Death urged as scant of time:—lest, Sister dear,
We many a lingering day
Had sicken'd with alternate hope and fear,
The ague of delay;
Watching each spark
Of promise quench'd in turn, till all our sky was
dark.
Death came and went:—that so thy image might
Our yearning hearts possess,
Associate with all pleasant thoughts and bright,
With youth and loveliness;
Sorrow can claim,
Mary, nor lot nor part in thy soft soothing name.
Joy of sad hearts, and light of downcast eyes!
Dearest thou art enshrined
In all thy fragrance in our memories;
For we must ever find
Bare thought of thee
Freshen this weary life, while weary life shall be.
Scheme | ABABCDC EFXFXXG HIHIJXJ KLKLMXM AMAMNXN OGODPP XQXQEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011101 010011 111111111 110101 0101 1111111111 01 1111110100 110001 1101010111 111111 1100 11101111 01 1101001111 11111 1101111111 110101 1101 1111111111 01 11010010101 110101 1101111111 111101 1111 01110111111 01 1111111101 11001001 1101100101 01101 1011 110101111011 1 1101111101 1010101 01001110101 1101 1011 101111011101 111101111 101101 01110010100 111101 1111 101101110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,534 |
Words | 272 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 47 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 170 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 95 Views
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"Consolations in Bereavement" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23297/consolations-in-bereavement>.
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