Analysis of Return!
Sydney Thompson Dobell 1824 (Kent) – 1874
RETURN, return! all night my lamp is burning,
All night, like it, my wide eyes watch and burn;
Like it, I fade and pale, when day returning
Bears witness that the absent can return,
Return, return.
Like it, I lessen with a lengthening sadness,
Like it, I burn to waste and waste to burn,
Like it, I spend the golden oil of gladness
To feed the sorrowy signal for return,
Return, return.
Like it, like it, whene'er the east wind sings,
I bend and shake; like it, I quake and yearn,
When Hope's late butterflies, with whispering wings,
Fly in out of the dark, to fall and burn--
Burn in the watchfire of return,
Return, return.
Like it, the very flame whereby I pine
Consumes me to its nature. While I mourn
My soul becomes a better soul than mine,
And from its brightening beacon I discern
My starry love go forth from me, and shine
Across the seas a path for thy return,
Return, return.
Return, return! all night I see it burn,
All night it prays like me, and lifts a twin
Of palmed praying hands that meet and yearn--
Yearn to the impleaded skies for thy return.
Day, like a golden fetter, locks them in,
And wans the light that withers, tho' it burn
As warmly still for thy return;
Still thro' the splendid load uplifts the thin
Pale, paler, palest patience that can learn
Naught but that votive sign for thy return--
That single suppliant sign for thy return,
Return, return.
Return, return! lest haply, love, or e'er
Thou touch the lamp the light have ceased to burn,
And thou, who thro' the window didst discern
The wonted flame, shalt reach the topmost stair
To find no wide eyes watching there,
No wither'd welcome waiting thy return!
A passing ghost, a smoke-wreath in the air,
The flameless ashes, and the soulless urn,
Warm with the famish'd fire that lived to burn--
Burn out its lingering life for thy return,
Its last of lingering life for thy return,
Its last of lingering life to light thy late return,
Return, return.
Scheme | ababB cbcbB dbdbbB exebebB bfbbfbbfbbbB xbbggbgbbbbbB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011111110 1111111101 11110111010 1101010101 0101 111101010010 1111110111 1111010111 110110101 0101 111110111 1101111101 1111011001 1011011101 1001101 0101 1101010111 0111110111 1101010111 01110010101 1101111101 0101011101 0101 0101111111 1111110101 111011101 110111101 1101010110 0101110111 11011101 110101101 111010111 111111101 110111101 0101 0101111110 1101011111 0111010101 01111011 11111101 1101010101 0101011001 011000101 11010101111 11110011101 11110011101 1111001111101 0101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,953 |
Words | 355 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 249 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:48 min read
- 67 Views
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"Return!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35923/return%21>.
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