Analysis of Now When The Number Of My Years

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



NOW when the number of my years
Is all fulfilled, and I
From sedentary life
Shall rouse me up to die,
Bury me low and let me lie
Under the wide and starry sky.
Joying to live, I joyed to die,
Bury me low and let me lie.

Clear was my soul, my deeds were free,
Honour was called my name,
I fell not back from fear
Nor followed after fame.
Bury me low and let me lie
Under the wide and starry sky.
Joying to live, I joyed to die,
Bury me low and let me lie.

Bury me low in valleys green
And where the milder breeze
Blows fresh along the stream,
Sings roundly in the trees -
Bury me low and let me lie
Under the wide and starry sky.
Joying to live, I joyed to die,
Bury me low and let me lie.


Scheme xaxaAAAA xbxbAAAA xcxcAAAA
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111 110101 11001 111111 10110111 10010101 10111111 10110111 11111101 11111 111111 110101 10110111 10010101 10111111 10110111 10110101 010101 110101 110001 10110111 10010101 10111111 10110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 673
Words 149
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 174
Words per stanza (avg) 49
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 15, 2023

44 sec read
81

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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