Analysis of Gunnar's Howe Above The House At Lithend
William Morris 1834 (Walthamstow) – 1896 (London)
Ye who have come o’er the sea
to behold this grey minster of lands,
Whose floor is the tomb of time past,
and whose walls by the toil of dead hands
Show pictures amidst of the ruin
of deeds that have overpast death,
Stay by this tomb in a tomb
to ask of who lieth beneath.
Ah! the world changeth too soon,
that ye stand there with unbated breath,
As I name him that Gunnar of old,
who erst in the haymaking tide
Felt all the land fragrant and fresh,
as amidst of the edges he died.
Too swiftly fame fadeth away,
if ye tremble not lest once again
The grey mound should open and show him
glad-eyed without grudging or pain.
Little labour methinks to behold him
but the tale-teller laboured in vain.
Little labour for ears that may hearken
to hear his death-conquering song,
Till the heart swells to think of the gladness
undying that overcame wrong.
O young is the world yet meseemeth
and the hope of it flourishing green,
When the words of a man unremembered
so bridge all the days that have been,
As we look round about on the land
that these nine hundred years he hath seen.
Dusk is abroad on the grass
of this valley amidst of the hill:
Dusk that shall never be dark
till the dawn hard on midnight shall fill
The trench under Eyiafell’s snow,
and the grey plain the sea meeteth grey.
White, high aloft hangs the moon
that no dark night shall brighten ere day,
For here day and night toileth the summer
lest deedless his time pass away.
Scheme | ABCBDEXXFEXGXGHXIJIJ DKAKELCXXL XMXMXHFHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (28%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111101 101111011 11101111 011101111 110011010 111111 1111001 1111101 101111 1111111 111111011 110011 11011001 101101011 1101101 111011101 011110011 11011011 10111011 10110101 10111111 11111001 101111101 01011011 1110111 001111001 1011011 11101111 111101101 111101111 1101101 111001101 1111011 10111111 011011 00110111 1101101 111111011 111011010 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,410 |
Words | 274 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 379 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 91 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 46 Views
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