Analysis of Sonnet XXXVIII: The Morrow's Message
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
“Thou Ghost,” I said, “and is thy name To-day?—
Yesterday's son, with such an abject brow!—
And can To-morrow be more pale than thou?”
While yet I spoke, the silence answered: “Yea,
Henceforth our issue is all grieved and grey,
And each beforehand makes such poor avow
As of old leaves beneath the budding bough
Or night-drift that the sundawn shreds away.”
Then cried I: “Mother of many malisons,
O Earth, receive me to thy dusty bed!”
But therewithal the tremulous silence said:
“Lo! Love yet bids thy lady greet thee once:—
Yea, twice,—whereby thy life is still the sun's;
And thrice,—whereby the shadow of death is dead.”
Scheme | ABBAABBACDDCCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 101111101 0111011111 1111010101 11101011101 010111101 1111010101 111101101 111101101 1101111101 110100101 1111110111 1101111101 0101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 650 |
Words | 120 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 475 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 108 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 111 Views
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"Sonnet XXXVIII: The Morrow's Message" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7704/sonnet-xxxviii%3A--the-morrow%27s-message>.
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