Analysis of Weltschmertz
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
You ask why I am sad to-day,
I have no cares, no griefs, you say?
Ah, yes, 't is true, I have no grief--
But--is there not the falling leaf?
The bare tree there is mourning left
With all of autumn's gray bereft;
It is not what has happened me,
Think of the bare, dismantled tree.
The birds go South along the sky,
I hear their lingering, long good-bye.
Who goes reluctant from my breast?
And yet--the lone and wind-swept nest.
The mourning, pale-flowered hearse goes by,
Why does a tear come to my eye?
Is it the March rain blowing wild?
I have no dead, I know no child.
I am no widow by the bier
Of him I held supremely dear.
I have not seen the choicest one
Sink down as sinks the westering sun.
Faith unto faith have I beheld,
For me, few solemn notes have swelled;
Love bekoned me out to the dawn,
And happily I followed on.
And yet my heart goes out to them
Whose sorrow is their diadem;
The falling leaf, the crying bird,
The voice to be, all lost, unheard--
Not mine, not mine, and yet too much
The thrilling power of human touch,
While all the world looks on and scorns
I wear another's crown of thorns.
Count me a priest who understands
The glorious pain of nail-pierced hands;
Count me a comrade of the thief
Hot driven into late belief.
Oh, mother's tear, oh, father's sigh,
Oh, mourning sweetheart's last good-bye,
I yet have known no mourning save
Beside some brother's brother's grave.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF EEGG XXHH AXXX IIJJ KKLL MMBB EENN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Etheree (30%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11111111 11111111 111111111 11110101 01111101 11110101 11111101 11010101 01110101 111100111 11010111 01010111 010110111 11011111 11011101 11111111 11110101 111101001 11110101 1111011 1101111 11110111 1111101 01001101 01111111 1101110 01010101 01111101 11110111 010101101 11011101 11010111 1101101 010011111 1101101 11001101 11011101 1101111 11111101 01110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,368 |
Words | 265 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 102 Views
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"Weltschmertz" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28998/weltschmertz>.
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