Analysis of To A Sexton
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
Let thy wheel-barrow alone--
Wherefore, Sexton, piling still
In thy bone-house bone on bone?
'Tis already like a hill
In a field of battle made,
Where three thousand skulls are laid;
These died in peace each with the other,--
Father, sister, friend, and brother.
Mark the spot to which I point!
From this platform, eight feet square,
Take not even a finger-joint:
Andrew's whole fire-side is there.
Here, alone, before thine eyes,
Simon's sickly daughter lies,
From weakness now, and pain defended,
Whom he twenty winters tended.
Look but at the gardener's pride--
How he glories, when he sees
Roses, lilies, side by side,
Violets in families!
By the heart of Man, his tears,
By his hopes and by his fears,
Thou, too heedless, art the Warden
Of a far superior garden.
Thus then, each to other dear,
Let them all in quiet lie,
Andrew there, and Susan here,
Neighbours in mortality.
And, should I live through sun and rain
Seven widowed years without my Jane,
O Sexton, do not then remove her,
Let one grave hold the Loved and Lover!
Scheme | ABABCCDD EFEFGGHH IJIJXXKK XXXXLLDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111001 110101 0111111 1010101 0011101 1110111 110111010 10101010 1011111 111111 11100101 1110111 1010111 1010101 110101010 11101010 11101001 1110111 1010111 1000100 1011111 1110111 1111010 101010010 1111101 1110101 1010101 100100 01111101 101010111 110111010 111101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,039 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 198 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 166 Views
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"To A Sexton" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42428/to-a-sexton>.
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