Analysis of To Olinthus Gregory, On Hearing Of The Death Of His Eldest Son, Who Was Drowned As He Was Returning By Water To His Father’s House At Woolrich
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
IS there a spot where Pity's foot,
Although unsandalled, fears to tread,
A silence where her voice is mute,
Where tears, and only tears, are shed?
It is the desolated home
Where Hope was yet a recent guest,
Where Hope again may never come,
Or come, and only speak of rest.
They gave my hand the pictured scroll,
And bade me only fancy there
A parent's agony of soul,
A parent's long and last despair;
The sunshine on the sudden wave,
Which closed above the youthful head,
Mocking the green and quiet grave,
Which waits the time-appointed dead.
I thought upon the lone fire-side,
Begirt with all familiar thought,
The future, where a father's pride
So much from present promise wrought:
The sweet anxiety of fears,
Anxious from love's excess alone,
The fond reliance upon years
More precious to us than our own:
All past—then weeping words there came
From out a still and darkened room,
They could not bear to name a name
Written so newly on the tomb.
They said he was so good and kind,
The voices sank, the eyes grew dim;
So much of love he left behind,
So much of life had died with him.
Ah, pity for the long beloved,
Ah, pity for the early dead;
The young, the promising, removed
Ere life a light or leaf had shed.
Nay, rather pity those whose doom
It is to wait and weep behind,
The father, who within the tomb
Sees all life held most dear enshrined.
Scheme | XAXAXBXB CDCDEAEA FGFGHIHI JKJKLMLM XAXAKLKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1101111 11111 01010111 11010111 11011 11110101 11011101 11010111 11110101 01110101 01010011 01010101 0110101 11010101 10010101 11010101 110101101 1110101 01010101 11110101 01010011 1011101 01010011 110111101 11110111 11010101 11111101 10110101 11111101 01010111 11111101 11111111 11010101 11010101 01010001 11011111 11010111 11110101 01010101 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,326 |
Words | 253 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 211 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 140 Views
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"To Olinthus Gregory, On Hearing Of The Death Of His Eldest Son, Who Was Drowned As He Was Returning By Water To His Father’s House At Woolrich" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25738/to-olinthus-gregory%2C-on-hearing-of-the-death-of-his-eldest-son%2C-who-was-drowned-as-he-was-returning-by-water-to-his-father%E2%80%99s-house-at-woolrich>.
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