Analysis of The Garden Of Death

Lord Alfred Douglas 1870 (Worcestershire) – 1945 (Lancing)



There is an isle in an unfurrowed sea
That I wot of, whereon the whole year round
The apple-blossoms and the rosebuds be
In early blooming ; and a many sound
Of ten-stringed lute, and most mellifluous breath
Of silver flute, and mellow half-heard horn,
Making unmeasured music. Thither Death
Coming like Love, takes all things in the morn
Of tenderest life, and being a delicate god,
In his own garden takes each delicate thing
Unstained, unmellowed, immature, untrod,
Tremulous betwixt the summer and the spring :
The rosebud ere it come to be a rose,
The blossom ere it win to be a fruit,
The virginal snowdrop, and the dove that knows
Only one dove for lover ; all the loot
Of young soft things, and all the harvesting
Of unripe flowers. Never comes the moon
To matron fulness, here no child-bearing
Vexes desire, and the sun knows no noon.
But all the happy dwellers of that place
Are reckless children gotten on Delight
By Beauty that is thrall to Death ; no grace,
No natural sweet they lack, a chrysolite
Of perfect beauty each. No wisdom comes
To mar their early folly, no false laws
Man-made for man, no mouthing prudence numbs
Their green unthought, or gives their licence pause ;
Young animals, young flowers, they live and grow,
And die before their sweet emblossomed breath
Has learnt to sigh save like a lover's. Oh !
How sweet is Youth, how delicate is Death !


Scheme ABABCDCDEFBFGHGHFIFIJKJBLMAMNCNC
Poetic Form
Metre 11110111 111110111 010100011 0101000101 11110111 1101010111 1011011 1011111001 11101001001 01110111001 011011 10001010001 0101111101 0101111101 0100100111 1011110101 1111010100 111010101 110111110 1010001111 1101010111 1101010101 1101111111 110011101 1011011101 1111010111 1111110101 111111101 11001101101 01011111 1111110101 1111110011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,352
Words 242
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 32
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,085
Words per stanza (avg) 247
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
102

Lord Alfred Douglas

Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde. Much of his early poetry was Uranian in theme, though he tended, later in life, to distance himself from both Wilde's influence and his own role as a Uranian poet. more…

All Lord Alfred Douglas poems | Lord Alfred Douglas Books

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