Analysis of A Dog's Death




The loose earth falls in the grave like a peaceful regular breathing;
Too like, for I was deceived a moment by the sound:
It has covered the heap of bracken that the gardener laid above him;
Quiet the spade swings: there we have now his mound.

A patch of fresh earth on the floor of the wood's renewing chamber:
All around is grass and moss and the hyacinth's dark green sprouts:
And oaks are above that were old when his fiftieth sire was a puppy:
And far away in the garden I hear the children's shouts.

Their joy is remote as a dream.    It is strange how we buy our sorrow
For the touch of perishing things, idly, with open eyes;
How we give our hearts to brutes that will die in a few seasons,
Nor trouble what we do when we do it; nor would have it otherwise.
  


Scheme XAXA XBXB XCXC
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 0111001101010010 1111101010101 111001110101001011 10011111111 0111110110101010 1011101001111 0110110111100101010 01010010110101 111011011111111010 10111001101101 1111011111100110 1101111111111110
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 763
Words 152
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 50
Words per line (avg) 13
Letters per stanza (avg) 198
Words per stanza (avg) 51
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 08, 2023

46 sec read
44

J. C. Squire

Sir John Collings Squire was a British poet, writer, historian, and influential literary editor of the post-World War I period. His writings mostly discuss common experiences. more…

All J. C. Squire poems | J. C. Squire Books

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