Analysis of Song Before Death: From the French
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
SWEET MOTHER, in a minute’s span
Death parts thee and my love of thee;
Sweet love, that yet art living man,
Come back, true love, to comfort me.
Back, ah, come back! ah wellaway!
But my love comes not any day.
As roses, when the warm West blows,
Break to full flower and sweeten spring,
My soul would break to a glorious rose
In such wise at his whispering.
In vain I listen; wellaway!
My love says nothing any day.
You that will weep for pity of love
On the low place where I am lain,
I pray you, having wept enough,
Tell him for whom I bore such pain
That he was yet, ah! wellaway!
My true love to my dying day.
Scheme | ABABCD EFEFCD XGXGCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11000101 11101111 11111101 11111101 111111 11111101 11010111 111100101 1111101001 01111100 011101 11110101 111111011 10111111 11110101 11111111 111111 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 606 |
Words | 125 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 155 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 115 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Song Before Death: From the French" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1398/song-before-death%3A-from-the-french>.
Discuss this Algernon Charles Swinburne poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In