Analysis of Lines: That time is dead for ever, child!

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



I.
That time is dead for ever, child!
Drowned, frozen, dead for ever!
We look on the past
And stare aghast
At the spectres wailing, pale and ghast,
Of hopes which thou and I beguiled
To death on life’s dark river.

II.
The stream we gazed on then rolled by;
Its waves are unreturning;
But we yet stand
In a lone land,
Like tombs to mark the memory
Of hopes and fears, which fade and flee
In the light of life’s dim morning.


Scheme ABCDDBBC AAEFFGGE
Poetic Form
Metre 1 11111101 1101110 11101 0101 10110101 11110101 1111110 1 01111111 1111 1111 0011 11110100 11011101 00111110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 419
Words 85
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 162
Words per stanza (avg) 42
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

25 sec read
361

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

All Percy Bysshe Shelley poems | Percy Bysshe Shelley Books

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