When I Have Passed Away
Claude McKay 1889 (Clarendon Parish) – 1948 (Chicago)
When I have passed away and am forgotten,
And no one living can recall my face,
When under alien sod my bones lie rotten
With not a tree or stone to mark the place;
Perchance a pensive youth, with passion burning,
For olden verse that smacks of love and wine,
The musty pages of old volumes turning,
May light upon a little song of mine,
And he may softly hum the tune and wonder
Who wrote the verses in the long ago;
Or he may sit him down awhile to ponder
Upon the simple words that touch him so.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 117 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 506 |
Words | 101 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
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"When I Have Passed Away" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/6913/when-i-have-passed-away>.
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