Analysis of Life and Death
Charles Harpur 1813 (Windsor) – 1868 (Australia)
A little light, heat, motion, breath;
Then silence, darkness, and decay;
This is the change from life to death
In him the weareth clay.
But Time’s one drop ’twixt that and this,
Ah! What a gulf of doom it is.
The cheek is fair, the eye is bold,
The ripe lip like a berry red;
Then the shroud clothes them;—thus behold
The living and the dead!
And how time’s last cold drop serence
Swells to eternity between.
Yet not for horror, nor to weep;
But through the solemn dark to see
That life, though swift, is wonder-deep,
And death the only key
That lets to that mysterious height
Where earth and heaven in God unite.
Scheme | ABABCXDEDECX FGFGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011101 11010001 11011111 01011 11111101 11011111 01110111 01110101 10111101 010001 0111111 11010001 11110111 11010111 11111101 010101 111101001 11010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 639 |
Words | 118 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 236 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 70 Views
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"Life and Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5151/life-and-death>.
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