Analysis of Oh! Breathe Not His Name

Thomas Moore 1779 (Dublin) – 1852 (Bromham)



Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade,
Where cold and unhonour'd his relics are laid:
Sad, silent, and dark, be the tears that we shed,
As the night-dew that falls on the grass o'er his head.

But the night-dew that falls, though in silence it weeps,
Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps;
And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls,
Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.


Scheme AABB CCDD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11111111001 110111011 11001101111 1011111011011 101111101011 1101101111 001111101011 111110010101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 427
Words 81
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 4, 4
Lines Amount 8
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 161
Words per stanza (avg) 40
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 23, 2023

24 sec read
103

Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore was an Irish poet singer songwriter and entertainer now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and the The Last Rose of Summer more…

All Thomas Moore poems | Thomas Moore Books

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