Analysis of Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
. When first, descending from the moorlands,
I saw the Stream of Yarrow glide
Along a bare and open valley,
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide.
When last along its banks I wandered,
Through groves that had begun to shed
Their golden leaves upon the pathways,
My steps the Border-minstrel led.
The mighty Minstrel breathes no longer,
'Mid mouldering ruins low he lies;
And death upon the braes of Yarrow,
Has closed the Shepherd-poet's eyes:
Nor has the rolling year twice measured,
From sign to sign, its stedfast course,
Since every mortal power of Coleridge
Was frozen at its marvellous source;
The rapt One, of the godlike forehead,
The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth:
And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle,
Has vanished from his lonely hearth.
Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits,
Or waves that own no curbing hand,
How fast has brother followed brother,
From sunshine to the sunless land!
Yet I, whose lids from infant slumber
Were earlier raised, remain to hear
A timid voice, that asks in whispers,
"Who next will drop and disappear?"
Our haughty life is crowned with darkness,
Like London with its own black wreath,
On which with thee, O Crabbe! forth-looking,
I gazed from Hampstead's breezy heath.
As if but yesterday departed,
Thou too art gone before; but why,
O'er ripe fruit, seasonably gathered,
Should frail survivors heave a sigh?
Mourn rather for that holy Spirit,
Sweet as the spring, as ocean deep;
For Her who, ere her summer faded,
Has sunk into a breathless sleep.
No more of old romantic sorrows,
For slaughtered Youth or love-lorn Maid!
With sharper grief is Yarrow smitten,
And Ettrick mourns with her their Poet dead.
Scheme | XAXABCXCDEXE BFXF CXXX XGDG DXXX XHXH IJBJ XKIK XXXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11011101 010101010 0110111 110111110 11110111 11010101 11010101 010101110 1110111 010101110 11010101 110101110 1111111 11001010110 1101111 01110110 010110101 010100010 11011101 111101010 11111101 111101010 111011 111111010 010010111 010111010 1111001 1010111110 11011111 111111110 1111101 11110010 11110111 1011110 11010101 110111010 11011101 101101010 11010101 111101010 11011111 110111010 011101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,715 |
Words | 282 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 146 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 92 Views
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