Analysis of An Unwritten Tragedy

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt 1840 (Petworth House) – 1922 (United Kingdom)



Ho, ye that thirst beside the running stream!
Love is a running stream, whose waters flow
Upon the earth, and who would drink thereof
Must bend him earthwards. There was such an one
Who lay upon his belly in the mire
And was not ashamed. Because he deemed it well
That love, which is the strength of weaker things,
Should make of Man a child. And, while he lay
And summer winds were drowsing in his ears,
The river of his love went rippling by.

And thus he lived, and thus he might have died,
Deaf to his fellows' scorn, and held it gain
To lie a living corse unburied there
Among the reeds of Time and hidden in
From the world's stare. But Fate was watching him
With envious eyes; and he had merited
In truth much retribution at her hand.
--Alas that I should have such spite to tell!
She took her vengeance at the fountain head,
And made a desolation in the land.

And how he dreamed and half outwitted Fate,
Because his mind was single in his love;
And how she took the pitiless winds in pay
And set a wrack of clouds upon their back;
And how, because she could not master him,
She turned the waters of his love away;
And how that man arose up from his lair,
Foul with the ooze and with a beard grown grey
Through his long shame; and how he turned and fled
From the sun's face to dwell among the tombs,

I would relate. And, if in simple words
How some have learned the nakedness of truth,
The carelessness of God, Man's cruelty
And their own folly, it would be a tale
To chill the lust of Youth and bend the knees
Of Manhood's pride before the strength of Fate
Which conquers all;--And this I think would be
The sum of human tragedy on Earth.
--But who am I to stay the wings of Death
And pluck a feather out and write such things?


Scheme XXAXXBCDXX XXEXFXGBHG IADXFDEDHX XXJXXIJXXC
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Etheree  (20%)
Metre 1111010101 1101011101 010101111 111111111 1101110001 01101011111 1111011101 1111010111 010101011 01011111001 0111011111 1111010111 11010111 0101110100 1011111101 11001011100 011010101 0111111111 1101010101 010010001 011101101 0111110011 01110100101 0101110111 0101111101 1101011101 0111011111 1101010111 1111011101 1011110101 1101010101 11110111 010011110 0111011101 1101110101 111010111 1101011111 0111010011 1111110111 0101010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,702
Words 340
Sentences 13
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10, 10
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 337
Words per stanza (avg) 84
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:43 min read
119

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt was an English poet and writer. more…

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