Analysis of A Dead City
Clark Ashton Smith 1893 (Long Valley Caldera) – 1961 (Pacific Grove)
The twilight reigns above the fallen noon
Within an ancient land, whose after-time
Lies like a shadow o'er its ruined prime.
Like rising mist the night increases soon
Round shattered palaces, ere yet the moon
On mute, unsentried walls and turrets climb,
And touch with whiteness of sepulchral rime
The desert where a city's bones are strewn.
She comes at last; unburied, thick, they show
In all the hoary nakedness of stone.
From out a shadow like the lips of Death
Issues a wind, that through the stillness blown,
Cries like a prophet's ghost with wailing breath
The weirds of finished and forgotten woe.
Scheme | ABBAABBA CDEDEC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011010101 0111011101 1101101101 1101010101 1101001101 11110101 01110111 0101010111 11111111 01010111 110110111 1001110101 110111101 0111000101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 595 |
Words | 105 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 243 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 23 Views
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"A Dead City" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54941/a-dead-city>.
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