Analysis of Fidele's Grassy Tomb
Sir Henry Newbolt 1862 (Bilston, Staffordshire) – 1938 (Kensington, London)
The Squire sat propped in a pillowed chair,
His eyes were alive and clear of care,
But well he knew that the hour was come
To bid good-bye to his ancient home.
He looked on garden, wood, and hill,
He looked on the lake, sunny and still:
The last of earth that his eyes could see
Was the island church of Orchardleigh.
The last that his heart could understand
Was the touch of the tongue that licked his hand:
'Bury the dog at my feet,' he said,
And his voice dropped, and the Squire was dead.
Now the dog was a hound of the Danish breed,
Staunch to love and strong at need:
He had dragged his master safe to shore
When the tide was ebbing at Elsinore.
From that day forth, as reason would,
He was named 'Fidele,' and made it good:
When the last of the mourners left the door
Fidele was dead on the chantry floor.
They buried him there at his master's feet,
And all that heard of it deemed it meet:
The story went the round for years,
Till it came at last to the Bishop's ears.
Bishop of Bath and Wells was he,
Lord of the lords of Orchardleigh;
And he wrote to the Parson the strongest screed
That Bishop may write or Parson read.
The sum of it was that a soulless hound
Was known to be buried in hallowed ground:
From scandal sore the Church to save
They must take the dog from his masters grave.
The heir was far in a foreign land,
The Parson was wax to my Lord's command:
He sent for the Sexton and bade him make
A lonely grave by the shore of the lake.
The Sexton sat by the water's brink
Where he used to sit when he used to think:
He reasoned slow, but he reasoned it out,
And his argument left him free from doubt.
'A Bishop,' he said, 'is the top of his trade:
But there's others can give him a start with the spade:
Yon dog, he carried the Squire ashore,
And a Christian couldn't ha' done no more.
The grave was dug; the mason came
And carved on stone Fidele's name;
But the dog that the Sexton laid inside
Was a dog that never had lived or died.
So the Parson was praised,and the scandal stayed,
Till, a long time after, the church decayed,
And, laying the floor anew, they found
In the tomb of the Squire the bones of a hound.
As for the Bishop of Bath and Wells
No more of him the story tells;
Doubtless he lived as a Prelate and Prince,
And died and was buried a century since.
And whether his view was right or wrong
Has little to do with this my song;
Something we owe him, you must allow;
And perhaps he has changed his mind by now.
The Squire in the family chantry sleeps,
The marble still his memory keeps:
Remember, when the name you spell,
There rest Fidele's bones as well.
For the Sexton's grave you need not search,
'Tis a nameless mound by the island church:
An ignorant fellow, of humble lot---
But. he knew one thing that a Bishop did not.
Scheme | AAXX BBCD EEFF GGHH IIHH JJKK CDGF LLDD EEMM NNOO PPHH QQRR PPLL SSTT UUVV WWXX YYZZ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (82%) |
Metre | 01110011 110010111 1111101011 111111101 11110101 111011001 011111111 1010111 01111101 1011011111 100111111 011100111 10110110101 1110111 111110111 101110110 11111101 11110111 1011010101 1111011 1101111101 011111111 01010111 1111110101 10110111 110111 01110100101 110111101 0111110101 1111100101 11010111 1110111101 011100101 0101111101 1110100111 0101101101 010110101 1111111111 1101111011 0110011111 01011101111 111011101101 111100101 0010101111 01110101 011111 1011010101 1011101111 1010110101 1011100101 010010111 00110101101 110101101 11110101 1011101001 01011001001 010111111 110111111 101111101 0011111111 010010011 010111001 01010111 111111 10111111 1010110101 1100101101 11111101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,706 |
Words | 547 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 68 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 125 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 2:46 min read
- 61 Views
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"Fidele's Grassy Tomb" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35125/fidele%27s-grassy-tomb>.
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