Analysis of The Reply to Time
Mary Darby Robinson 1757 (England) – 1800 (England)
O TIME, forgive the mournful song
That on thy pinions stole along,
When the rude hand of pain severe
Chas'd down my cheek the burning tear;
When sorrow chill'd each warm desire
That kindles FANCY'S lambent fire;
When HOPE, by fost'ring FRIENDSHIP rear'd,
A phantom of the brain appear'd;
Forgive the song, devoid of art,
That stole spontaneous from my heart;
For when that heart shall throb no more,
And all its keen regrets be o'er;
Should kind remembrance shed one tear
To sacred FRIENDSHIP o'er my bier;
When the dark precincts of the tomb,
Shall hide me in its deepest gloom;
O! should'st thou on thy wafting wing
The sigh of gentle sorrow bring;
Or fondly deign to bear the name
Of one, alas! unknown to fame;
Then, shall my weak untutor'd rhyme,
Exulting boast the gifts of TIME.
But while I feel youth's vivid fire
Fann'd by the breath of care expire;
While no blest ray of HOPE divine,
O'er my chill'd bosom deigns to shine:
While doom'd to mark the vapid day
In tasteless languor waste away:
Still, still, my sad and plaintive rhyme
Must blame the ruthless pow'r of TIME.
Each infant flow'r of rainbow hue,
That bathes its head in morning dew,
At twilight droops; the mountain PINE,
Whose high and waving brows incline
O'er the white cataract's foamy way,
Shall at THY withering touch decay!
The craggy cliffs that proudly rise
In awful splendour 'midst the skies,
Shall to the vale in fragments roll,
Obedient to thy fell controul!
The loftiest fabric rear'd to fame;
The sculptur'd BUST, the POET'S name;
The softest tint of TITIAN die;
The boast of magic MINSTRELSY;
The vows to holy FRIENDSHIP dear;
The sainted smile of LOVE sincere,
The flame that warms th' empassion'd heart;
All that fine feeling can impart;
The wonders of exterior grace;
The spells that bind the fairest face;
Fade in oblivion's torpid hour
The victims of thy TYRANT POW'R!
Scheme | AABCDDEEFFXDCXGGHHIIJJ DXKKLLJJ MMKKLLNNOOIIXNBBFFPPDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 1111101 10111101 11110101 110111010 111110 1111101 01010101 01010111 110100111 11111111 011101110 11010111 110101011 1011101 11101101 111111101 01110101 11011101 11010111 111111 01010111 111111010 11011101 11111101 101110111 11110101 0101101 11110101 110101111 11011111 11110101 1110101 11010101 10011101 111100101 01011101 0101101 11010101 01001111 0110111 01010101 01011101 011101 01110101 01011101 01111111 11110101 010101001 01110101 1011010 010111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,847 |
Words | 328 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 22, 8, 22 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 485 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 109 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 82 Views
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"The Reply to Time" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26846/the-reply-to-time>.
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