Analysis of A Poet's Epitaph
Art thou a Statist in the van
Of public conflicts trained and bred?
--First learn to love one living man;
'Then' may'st thou think upon the dead.
A Lawyer art thou?--draw not nigh!
Go, carry to some fitter place
The keenness of that practised eye,
The hardness of that sallow face.
Art thou a Man of purple cheer?
A rosy Man, right plump to see?
Approach; yet, Doctor, not too near,
This grave no cushion is for thee.
Or art thou one of gallant pride,
A Soldier and no man of chaff?
Welcome!--but lay thy sword aside,
And lean upon a peasant's staff.
Physician art thou? one, all eyes,
Philosopher! a fingering slave,
One that would peep and botanise
Upon his mother's grave?
Wrapt closely in thy sensual fleece,
O turn aside,--and take, I pray,
That he below may rest in peace,
Thy ever-dwindling soul, away!
A Moralist perchance appears;
Led, Heaven knows how! to this poor sod:
And he has neither eyes nor ears;
Himself his world, and his own God;
One to whose smooth-rubbed soul can cling
Nor form, nor feeling, great or small;
A reasoning, self-sufficing thing,
An intellectual All-in-all!
Shut close the door; press down the latch;
Sleep in thy intellectual crust;
Nor lose ten tickings of thy watch
Near this unprofitable dust.
But who is He, with modest looks,
And clad in homely russet brown?
He murmurs near the running brooks
A music sweeter than their own.
He is retired as noontide dew,
Or fountain in a noon-day grove;
And you must love him, ere to you
He will seem worthy of your love.
The outward shows of sky and earth,
Of hill and valley, he has viewed;
And impulses of deeper birth
Have come to him in solitude.
In common things that round us lie
Some random truths he can impart,--
The harvest of a quiet eye
That broods and sleeps on his own heart.
But he is weak; both Man and Boy,
Hath been an idler in the land;
Contented if he might enjoy
The things which others understand.
--Come hither in thy hour of strength;
Come, weak as is a breaking wave!
Here stretch thy body at full length;
Or build thy house upon this grave.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH XIDI JKJK LMLM NONO XPXP QXQX RXRX STST CUCU VWVW XIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (87%) Etheree (28%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11010001 11001101 11111101 111110101 01011111 11011101 011111 0101111 11011101 01011111 01110111 11110111 11111101 01001111 10111101 0101011 01011111 010001001 111101 011101 110011001 11010111 11011101 110100101 01000101 110111111 01110111 01110111 11111111 11110111 0100111 10100101 11011101 10101001 1111111 11010001 11111101 01010101 11010101 01010111 1101111 11000111 01111111 11110111 01011101 11010111 01001101 1111010 01011111 11011101 01010101 11011111 11111101 111100001 01011101 0111001 110011011 11110101 11110111 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,054 |
Words | 380 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 105 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 04, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 641 Views
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"A Poet's Epitaph" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42121/a-poet%27s-epitaph>.
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