Analysis of The Sundial
Thomas Love Peacock 1785 (Weymouth, Dorset) – 1866
The ivy o'er the mouldering wall
Spreads like a tree, the growth of years:
The wild wind through the doorless hall
A melancholy music rears,
A solitary voice, that sighs
O'er man's forgotten pageantries.
Above the central gate, the clock,
Through clustering ivy dimly seen,
Seems, like the ghost of Time, to mock
The wrecks of power that once has been.
The hands are rusted on its face;
Even where they ceased, in years gone by,
To keep the flying moments pace;
Fixing, in Fancy's thoughtful eye,
A point of ages passed away,
A speck of time, that owns no tie
With aught that lives and breathes to-day.
But 'mid the rank and towering grass,
Where breezes wave, in mournful sport,
The weeds that choke the ruined court,
The careless hours that circling pass,
Still trace upon the dialled brass
The shade of their unvarying way:
And evermore, with every ray
That breaks the clouds and gilds the air,
Time's stealthy steps are imaged there:
Even as the long-revolving years
In self-reflecting circles flow,
From the first bud the hedge-row bears,
To wintry Nature's robe of snow.
The changeful forms of mortal things
Decay and pass; and art and power
Oppose in vain the doom that flings
Oblivion on their closing hour:
While still, to every woodland vale,
New blooms, new fruits, the seasons bring,
For other eyes and lips to hail
With looks and sounds of welcoming:
As where some stream light-eddying roves
By sunny meads and shadowy groves,
Wave following wave departs for ever,
But still flows on the eternal river.
Scheme | ABABCBDEDFGHGHIHIJKKJJIILLBMNMOPOPQRQRBSPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010011 11010111 0111011 0100101 0100111 1010101 01010101 110010101 11011111 011101111 01110111 101110111 11010101 1001101 01110101 01111111 11110111 110101001 11010101 01110101 0101011001 1101011 011111 01011001 11010101 1101111 101010101 01010101 10110111 11010111 0111101 010101010 01010111 0100111010 11110011 11110101 11010111 11011100 1111111 110101001 1100101110 1111001010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,523 |
Words | 265 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 42 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,198 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 263 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 124 Views
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"The Sundial" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36767/the-sundial>.
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