Analysis of Epitaph
He never played by published rules --
he lived his life as he saw fit;
instead, he left to other fools
their rash pursuits, the glory bit.
He studied gulls -- the birds, their flight --
and wondered why they shrieked all night.
Dark shadows deepened in his eyes;
the light from shaded windows faded.
He heard the shrill, the poignant cries
of gulls in flight from perches traded
for greying, vague, and empty skies.
At last he knew what birds foretold.
In dry whispers, with rasping breath,
he greeted the arrival of cold-
natured, bony-fingered, grasping Death.
Scheme | ABABCCDEDFDGHGH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11011101 11111111 01111101 11010101 11010111 01011111 1110011 011101010 11010101 110111010 11010101 11111101 0110111 110001011 101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 548 |
Words | 98 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 15 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 439 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 98 |
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 29 sec read
- 1 View
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"Epitaph" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/70464/epitaph>.
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