Analysis of Euthanasia
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
When Time, or soon or late, shall bring
The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead,
Oblivion! may thy languid wing
Wave gently o'er my dying bed!
No band of friends or heirs be there,
To weep, or wish, the coming blow:
No maiden, with dishevelled hair,
To feel, or feign, decorous woe.
But silent let me sink to earth,
With no officious mourners near:
I would not mar one hour of mirth,
Nor startle friendship with a tear.
Yet Love, if Love in such an hour
Could nobly check its useless sighs,
Might then exert its latest power
In her who lives, and him who dies.
'Twere sweet, my Psyche! to the last
Thy features still serene to see:
Forgetful of its struggles past,
E’en Pain itself should smile on thee.
But vain the wish?for Beauty still
Will shrink, as shrinks the ebbing breath;
And women's tears, produced at will,
Deceive in life, unman in death.
Then lonely be my latest hour,
Without regret, without a groan;
For thousands Death hath ceas’d to lower,
And pain been transient or unknown.
'Ay, but to die, and go,' alas!
Where all have gone, and all must go!
To be the nothing that I was
Ere born to life and living woe!
Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen,
Count o'er thy days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
'Tis something better not to be.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EXEC FGFG HIHI JKJK FLFL XDXD XIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 11111111 0111101 010011101 110101101 11111111 11110101 110111 11111001 11011111 111101 111111011 11010101 111101110 11011101 110111010 00110111 11110101 11010111 01011101 11011111 1101101 11110101 01010111 0101101 110111010 01010101 110111110 01110101 11110101 11110111 11010111 11110101 1100111011 110111101 0110111 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,258 |
Words | 240 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 109 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 151 Views
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"Euthanasia" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15091/euthanasia>.
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