Analysis of Mentem Mortalia Tangunt
Manmohan Ghose 1869 – 1924 (Kolkata)
Now lonely is the wood:
No flower now lingers, none!
The virgin sisterhood
Of roses, all are gone;
Now Autumn sheds her latest leaf;
And in my heart is grief.
Ah me, for all earth rears,
The appointed bound is placed!
After a thousand years
The great oak falls at last:
And thou, more lovely, canst not stay,
Sweet rose, beyond thy day.
Our life is not the life
Of roses and of leaves;
Else wherefore this deep strife,
This pain, our soul conceives?
The fall of ev'n such short-lived things
To us some sorrow brings.
And yet, plant, bird, and fly
Feel no such hidden fire.
Happy they live; and die
Happy, with no desire.
They in their brief life have fulfill'd
All Nature in them will'd.
And were we also made
Of like terrestrial mould
We should not be afraid,
Nor feel the grave so cold;
But, all oblivious of our fate,
Live sweetly out our date.
For the great mother loves
Her children far too well;
These longings that she moves
Their own fulfilment tell:
She would not burden us with aught
We really needed not.
O, not in vain she gave
To the wild birds their wings!
They spread them forth, and have
Heaven for their wanderings.
But we, to whom no wings are given
Why seek we for a Heaven?
And, when far o'er us fly
Those voyagers of the air,
Why must we gaze, and sigh,
O would that I were there?
Why are we restless, ill content,
Tied to one element?
'Tis not that in our tears
Some happier life we crave;
Our happiest, sweetest years
Mysterious moments have:
The sense of our brief human lot
Clings to us, haunts our thought.
O then this pleasant earth
Seems but an alien thing:
Faint grows her busy mirth;
Far hence our thoughts take wing:
For some enduring home we cry!
She cannot satisfy,
Or bind us: only ties
Immortal found can bless;
Only in loving eyes
We see our happiness;
Only upon a loving breast
Our souls find any rest.
Why thirsts the spirit so
For life? what moves it thus?
'Tis her voice; yes, I know,
'Tis Nature cries in us:
'Tis no unholy strife of ours
Against forbidding powers.
What though we gaze with fear,
So blank death seems to be;
What though no land appear
Beyond that lonely sea;
Still in our hearts her cry doth stay;
She will find out a way.
So in the chrysalis
Slumber those lovely wings;
So from the shell it is
The dazzling pearl she brings:
Her glorious works she works alone,
Unfathom'd and unknown!
Scheme | ABAXCC DXDXEE FXFDGG HIHIJJ KLKLMM XNXNAO PGQGBB HRHRXX XPDQOX STSTHH UXUVWW XVXVYY Z1 Z1 EE XGXG2 2 |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101 1101101 010100 110111 11010101 001111 111111 0010111 100101 011111 01110111 110111 1011101 110011 11111 111011 011111111 111101 011101 1111010 101101 1011010 10111101 110011 001101 1101001 111101 110111 1101001101 1101101 101101 010111 110111 1111 11110111 110101 110111 101111 111101 1011100 111111110 1111010 0111011 1100101 111101 111101 11110110 111100 1110101 1100111 10100101 0100101 011101101 1111101 111101 1111001 110101 1110111 11010111 11010 111101 010111 100101 1110100 10010101 1011101 110101 111111 101111 110101 110101110 0101010 111111 111111 111101 011101 101010111 111101 100100 101101 110111 0100111 010011101 1001 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,301 |
Words | 453 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:17 min read
- 5 Views
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"Mentem Mortalia Tangunt" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56111/mentem-mortalia-tangunt>.
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