Analysis of Song II: Have No Thought for Tomorrow
William Morris 1834 (Walthamstow) – 1896 (London)
Love is enough: have no thought for to-morrow
If ye lie down this even in rest from your pain,
Ye who have paid for your bliss with great sorrow:
For as it was once so it shall be again.
Ye shall cry out for death as ye stretch forth in vain
Feeble hands to the hands that would help but they may not,
Cry out to deaf ears that would hear if they could;
Till again shall the change come, and words your lips say not
Your hearts make all plain in the best wise they would
And the world ye thought waning is glorious and good:
And no morning now mocks you and no nightfall is weary,
The plains are not empty of song and of deed:
The sea strayeth not, nor the mountains are dreary;
The wind is not helpless for any man's need,
Nor falleth the rain but for thistle and weed.
O surely this morning all sorrow is hidden,
All battle is hushed for this even at least;
And no one this noontide may hunger, unbidden
To the flowers and the singing and the joy of your feast
Where silent ye sit midst the world's tale increased.
Lo, the lovers unloved that draw nigh for your blessing!
For your tale makes the dreaming whereby yet they live
The dreams of the day with their hopes of redressing,
The dreams of the night with the kisses they give,
The dreams of the dawn wherein death and hope strive.
Ah, what shall we say then, but that earth threatened often
Shall live on for ever that such things may be,
That the dry seed shall quicken, the hard earth shall soften,
And the spring-bearing birds flutter north o'er the sea,
That earth's garden may bloom round my love's feet and me?
Scheme | ABAXB CDCDD EFEFF GHBHH IJIXJ GEGEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111110 111111001111 11111111110 11111111101 111111111101 1011011111111 11111111111 1011011011111 11111001111 0011110110001 0110111011110 01111011011 01111010110 01111011011 1101111001 110110110110 11011111011 011111101 10100010001111 11011101101 1010011111110 111101001111 011011111010 01101101011 01101011011 1111111111010 11111011111 1011110011110 0011011011001 111011111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,557 |
Words | 305 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 41 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 206 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 67 Views
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