Analysis of A Dog's Death
J. C. Squire 1884 (Plymouth) – 1958
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
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