Analysis of De Profundis Clemadi
Arthur Symons 1865 (Milford Haven) – 1945
I did not know; child, child, I did not know,
Who now in lonely wayfare go,
Who wander lonely of you, O my child,
And by myself exiled.
I did not know, but, O white soul of youth,
So passionate of truth,
So amorous of duty, and so strong
To suffer, not to suffer wrong,
Is there for me no pity, who am weak?
Spare me this silence, speak!
I did not know: I wronged you; I repent:
But will you not relent?
Must I still wander, outlawed, and go on
The old weary ways alone,
As in the old intolerable days
Before I saw you face to face,
The doubly darkened ways since you withdraw
Your light, that was my law?
I charge you by your soul, pause, ere you hurl
Sheer to destruction, girl,
A poor soul that had midway struggled out,
Still midway clogged about,
And for the love of you had turned his back
Upon the miry track,
That had been as a grassy wood-way, dim
With violet-beds, to him.
I wronged you, but I loved you; and to me
Your love was purity;
I rose, because you called me, and I drew
Nearer to God, in you.
I fall, and if you leave me, I must fall
To that last depth of all,
Where not the miracle of even your eyes
Can bid the dead arise.
I charge you that you save not your own sense
Of lilied innocence,
By setting, at the roots of that fair stem,
A murdered thing, to nourish them.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGHIJKKLLMMNNOOPPQQRRSSTUVV |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111111 1101011 1101011111 0111 1111111111 110011 1100110011 11011101 1111110111 111101 1111111101 111101 111101011 0110101 1001010001 01111111 0101011101 111111 1111111111 110101 011111101 11101 0101111111 01011 1111010111 1100111 1111111011 111100 1101111011 101101 1101111111 111111 11010011011 110101 1111111111 11100 1101011111 01011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,260 |
Words | 261 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 38 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 974 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 259 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 57 Views
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"De Profundis Clemadi" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3952/de-profundis-clemadi>.
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