Analysis of Stanzas on the Late National Calamity, the Death of the Princess Charlotte
Felicia Dorothea Hemans 1793 (Liverpool, Lancashire) – 1835 (Dublin, County Dublin)
MARK'D ye the mingling of the city's throng,
Each mien, each glance, with expectation bright?
Prepare the pageant, and the choral song,
The pealing chimes, the blaze of festal light!
And hark! what rumour's gathering sound is nigh?
Is it the voice of joy, that murmur deep?
Away! be hush'd! ye sounds of revelry.
Back to your homes, ye multitudes, to weep!
Weep! for the storm hath o'er us darkly past,
And England's royal flower is broken by the blast!
II
Was it a dream? so sudden and so dread
That awful fiat o'er our senses came!
So loved, so blest, is that young spirit fled,
Whose early grandeur promised years of fame?
Oh! when hath life possess'd, or death destroy'd
More lovely hopes, more cloudlessly that smiled?
When hath the spoiler left so dark a void?
For all is lost-the mother and her child!
Our morning-star hath vanish'd, and the tomb
Throws its deep lengthen'd shade o'er distant years to come.
III
Angel of Death! did no presaging sign
Announce thy coming, and thy way prepare?
No warning voice, no harbinger was thine,
Danger and fear seem'd past-but thou wert there!
Prophetic sounds along the earthquake's path
Foretell the hour of nature's awful throes;
And the volcano, ere it burst in wrath,
Sends forth some herald from its dread repose:
But thou, dark Spirit! swift and unforeseen,
Cam'st like the lightning's flash, when heaven is all serene.
IV
And she is gone-the royal and the young,
In soul commanding, and in heart benign;
Who, from a race of kings and heroes sprung,
Glow'd with a spirit lofty as her line.
Now may the voice she loved on earth so well
Breathe forth her name, unheeded and in vain;
Nor can those eyes on which her own would dwell,
Wake from that breast one sympathy again:
The ardent heart, the towering mind are fled,
Yet shall undying love still linger with the dead.
V
Oh! many a bright existence we have seen
Quench'd, in the glow and fulness of its prime;
And many a cherish'd flower, ere now, hath been
Cropt, ere its leaves were breathed upon by time.
We have lost heroes in their noon of pride,
Whose fields of triumph gave them but a bier;
And we have wept when soaring genius died,
Check'd in the glory of his mid career!
But here our hopes were centred-all is o'er,
All thought in this absorb'd-she was-and is no more!
VI
We watch'd her childhood from its earliest hour,
From every word and look blest omens caught;
While that young mind developed all its power,
And rose to energies of loftiest thought.
On her was fix'd the patriot's ardent eye,
One hope still bloom'd-one vista still was fair;
And when the tempest swept the troubled sky
She was our dayspring-all was cloudless there;
And oh! how lovely broke on England's gaze,
E'en through the mist and storm, the light of distant days.
VII
Now hath one moment darken'd future years,
And changed the track of ages yet to be!-
Yet, mortal! 'midst the bitterness of tears,
Kneel, and adore the inscrutable decree!
Oh! while the clear perspective smiled in light,
Wisdom should then have temper'd hope's excess,
And, lost One! when we saw thy Iot so bright,
We might have trembled at its loveliness:
Joy is no earthly flower-nor framed to bear,
In its exotic bloom, life's cold, ungenial air.
VIII
All smiled around thee-Youth, and Love, and Praise,
Hearts all devotion and all truth were thine!
On thee was riveted a nation's gaze,
As on some radiant and unsullied shrine.
Heiress of empires! thou art passe'd away,
Like some fair vision, that arose to throw,
O'er one brief hour of life, a fleeting ray,
Then leave the rest to solitude and woe!
Oh! who shall dare to woo such dreams again!
Who hath not wept to know, that tears for thee were vain?
IX
Yet there is one who loved thee-and whose soul
With mild affections nature form'd to melt;
His mind hath bow'd beneath the stern control
Of many a grief-but this shall be unfelt!
Years have gone by-and given his honour'd head
A diadem of snow-his eye is dim-
Around him Heaven a solemn cloud hath spread,
The past, the future, are a dream to him!
Yet, in the darkness of his fate, alone
He dwells on earth, while thou, in life's full pride art gone!
X
The Chastener's hand is on us-we may weep,
But not repine-for many a storm hath past,
And, pillow'd on her own majestic deep,
Hath England slept, unshaken by the blast!
And War hath raged o'er many a distant plain
Trampling the vine and olive in his path;
While she, that regal daughter of the
Scheme | ABABCDEDFFG HIHIJKJKXXG LMLMNONOPPC QLQLRSRTHHE PUXUVXVXWXC WXWXCMCMXXC XEXEBXBOMMC XLXLYZYZTSO 1 X1 BH2 H2 XXX DFDFSNX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010010101 111110101 0101000101 01101111 0111100111 1101111101 0111111100 111111011 11011101101 0101010110101 1 1101110011 110101010101 1111111101 1100110111 1111011101 11011111 1101011101 1111010001 10101110001 1111011010111 1 1011111001 0111001101 1101110011 1001111111 010101011 01010110101 0001011101 1111011101 111101001 1110111101101 1 0111010001 0101000101 1101110101 1101010101 1101111111 1101010001 1111110111 1111110001 01010100111 110101110101 1 11001010111 100101111 010010101111 1111010111 1111001111 1111011101 0111110101 1001011101 11101011110 110101110111 1 11011110010 11001011101 11110101110 011100111 10110100101 1111110111 0101010101 1110111101 0111011101 1110101011101 1 1111010101 0101110111 1101010011 10010010001 1101010101 101111011 0111111111 11110111 11110101111 0101011111 1 1101110101 1101001101 1111000101 11110000101 10110011101 1111010111 101110110101 110111001 1111111101 111111111101 1 1111111011 1101010111 1111010101 1100111111 1111010111 010111111 01110010111 0101010111 1001011101 111111011111 1 011111111 1111100111 011010101 1101010101 011110100101 1001010011 111101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,316 |
Words | 795 |
Sentences | 51 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 7 |
Lines Amount | 106 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 342 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 79 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 4:11 min read
- 96 Views
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"Stanzas on the Late National Calamity, the Death of the Princess Charlotte" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13539/stanzas-on-the-late-national-calamity%2C-the-death-of-the-princess-charlotte>.
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