Analysis of Penance
John McCrae 1872 (Guelph) – 1918 (Boulogne-sur-Mer)
My lover died a century ago,
Her dear heart stricken by my sland'rous breath,
Wherefore the Gods forbade that I should know
The peace of death.
Men pass my grave, and say, "'Twere well to sleep,
Like such an one, amid the uncaring dead!"
How should they know the vigils that I keep,
The tears I shed?
Upon the grave, I count with lifeless breath,
Each night, each year, the flowers that bloom and die,
Deeming the leaves, that fall to dreamless death,
More blest than I.
'Twas just last year -- I heard two lovers pass
So near, I caught the tender words he said:
To-night the rain-drenched breezes sway the grass
Above his head.
That night full envious of his life was I,
That youth and love should stand at his behest;
To-night, I envy him, that he should lie
At utter rest.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD BEBE FDFD EGEG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1101010001 011101111 101011111 0111 1111011111 11110100101 1111010111 0111 0101111101 11110101101 10111111 1111 1111111101 1111010111 1101110101 0111 11110011111 1101111101 1111011111 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 824 |
Words | 148 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 119 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 123 Views
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"Penance" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23769/penance>.
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