Analysis of Oh, Ye Dead!

Thomas Moore 1779 (Dublin) – 1852 (Bromham)



Oh, ye Dead! oh, ye Dead! whom we know by the light you give
From your cold gleaming eyes, though you move like men who live,
Why leave you thus your graves,
In far off fields and waves,
Where the worm and the sea-bird only know your bed,
To haunt this spot where all
Those eyes that wept your fall,
And the hearts that wail'd you, like your own, lie dead?

It is true, it is true, we are shadows cold and wan;
And the fair and the brave whom we loved on earth are gone;
But still thus even in death,
So sweet the living breath
Of the fields and the flowers in our youth we wander'd o'er,
That ere, condemn'd, we go
To freeze 'mid Hecla's snow,
We would taste it a while, and think we live once more!


Scheme XXAABCCB XXDDXEEX
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111110111 1111011111111 111111 011101 101001110111 111111 111111 00111111111 111111111101 0010011111111 1111001 110101 1010010010111010 110111 111101 111101011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 707
Words 143
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 264
Words per stanza (avg) 71
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
105

Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore was an Irish poet singer songwriter and entertainer now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and the The Last Rose of Summer more…

All Thomas Moore poems | Thomas Moore Books

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