Analysis of Scenes In London IV - The City Churchyard
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
I PRAY thee lay me not to rest
Among these mouldering bones;
Too heavily the earth is prest
By all these crowded stones.
Life is too gay—life is too near—
With all its pomp and toil;
I pray thee do not lay me here,
In such a world-struck soil.
The ceaseless roll of wheels would wake
The slumbers of the dead;
I cannot bear for life to make
Its pathway o'er my head.
The flags around are cold and drear,
They stand apart, alone;
And no one ever pauses here,
To sorrow for the gone.
No: lay me in the far green fields
The summer sunshine cheers;
And where the early wild flower yields
The tribute of its tears.
Where shadows the sepulchral yew,
Where droops the willow tree,
Where the long grass is filled with dew—
Oh! make such grave for me!
And passers-by, at evening's close,
Will pause beside the grave,
And moralize o'er the repose
They fear, and yet they crave.
Perhaps some kindly hand may bring
Its offering to the tomb;
And say, As fades the rose in spring,
So fadeth human bloom.
But here there is no kindly thought
To soothe, and to relieve;
No fancies and no flowers are brought,
That soften while they grieve.
Here Poesy and Love come not—
It is a world of stone;
The grave is bought—is closed—forgot!
And then life hurries on.
Sorrow and beauty—nature—love—
Redeem man's common breath;
Ah! let them shed the grave above—
Give loveliness to death.
Scheme | ABAB CDED FGFG CHEX IXIX JKJK XLXL MNMN OPOP QHQX RSRS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (73%) |
Metre | 11111111 01111 11000111 111101 11111111 111101 11111111 010111 01011111 01101 11011111 111011 01011101 110101 01110101 110101 11100111 01011 010101101 010111 11011 11011 10111111 111111 01011101 110101 01010001 110111 01110111 1100101 01110101 11101 11111101 110101 110011011 110111 110111 110111 01111101 011101 10010101 011101 11110101 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,346 |
Words | 253 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 25, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 91 Views
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"Scenes In London IV - The City Churchyard" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25702/scenes-in-london-iv---the-city-churchyard>.
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