Analysis of Chapter-House, Furness Abbey
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
The following lines are a translation of an exquisite epistle addressed by St. Beuve to A. Fontenay. It applies very aptly to the fine old Abbey, whose ruins seem the very ideal of the poet's wish.
"Young friend, if, after struggles, toils, and many a passion past,
A vanquished one, who from his car has the worn harness cast;
Or whether, drawing in your sail, the first rude wind has thrown
Your vessel in some quiet port, henceforth to be your own;
Or either some unhappy love, which, lingering with you still,
For any further voyage in life has left you little will.
And from a path that charms you not—at the first step returning,
Like some pale lover during night, by some lone threshold mourning;
Or whether, full of hope and truth, you share life's better part,
Of love unconscious; though a man, a very child at heart.
"Dear friend, if it be your's to have in some deep vale a home,
Where you may dream of faith and fate, and all the great, to come.
If such a place of tranquil rest be to your future given,
Where every hour of solitude is consecrate to heaven,
Oh, leave it not! let this vain life fret its few hours afar,
Where joy departs, and glory mocks the wide world's weary war
Let not its rude and angry tide with jarring torrent wake
The silence that the poplars love, of your own limpid lake.
"Ah, stay! live lonely on, and soon, the silence and the sound
Of music by the wandering winds, amid the reed-tops found;
The colour which each various bough has on its various leaves,
The hue which the transparent wave from the bright morn receives;
Or nearer, from your window seen, your garden's pleasant trees,
Your chamber and its daily walls—or even less than these:
All round will be your comforters, and, living but for you,
Will talk to you in wordless speech, a language soft and true.
Like some safe friend with drooping head, who utters not a word,
But yet has guessed your inmost thoughts, and with a look has heard.
Yes, solitude amid her depths has many a hidden balm
Guarded for those who leave her not, to strengthen and to calm.
"It has been long a dream of mine—a lonely one to dwell,
Where some old abbey's ruins hide a solitary cell;
A gloomy room, with iron bars across the window placed,
And o'er the narrow panes of glass fantastic crossings traced;
And green moss peeping forth amid the riven granite stone,
And the dim arches over-head with ivy overgrown."
———————
Such is the dwelling, grey and old, which, in some world-worn mood,
The youthful poet dreamed would suit his future solitude.
If the old abbey be his search, he might seek far and near
Ere he would find a gothic cell more lorn and lone than here:
Long years have darkened into time since vespers here were rung,
And here has been no other dirge than what the winds have sung;
And here the drooping ivy wreaths in ancient clusters fall,
And moss o'er each device hath grown upon the sculptured wall;
Yet might he find some southern cell, where sweet wild flowers are creeping,
And old pear trees below the arch—their autumn leaves are weeping.
There might he heap the treasured things he mentions in his song,
Scrolls, crayons, folios, which have been familiar friends so long;
*A picture half effaced, (once dear), a lute, an oaken chair,
Black but inlaid with ivory, a lock of golden hair,
And letters dated years ago, and poems half complete,
In picturesque disorder flung, would make a dwelling meet
For the young poet anchorite, who from our world hath flown,
To build, in solitude and song, another of his own.
* "Un portrait effacé
"Que fut cher autrefois."
Scheme | X AABBCCDDEEXXFFXXGGHHIIJJKKLLMMNNOOBB PPXXQQRRDDSSTTUUBB DI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01001100101110001001111101101101010111011010100110101 111101010100101 01011111101101 11010011011111 11001101111111 110101011100111 110101001111101 010111111011010 11110101111110 11011101111101 1110101010111 11111111011101 11111101010111 110111011111010 110010110110110 111111111111001 11010101011101 11110101110101 010101111111 11110101010001 110101001010111 011110011111001 01100101101101 11011101110101 11001101110111 11111100010111 11110101010101 11111101110101 1111111010111 11001011100101 10111101110011 11110111010111 1111010101001 01011101010101 010010111010101 01110101010101 0011010111001 1 11010101101111 0101011111010 10110111111101 11110101110111 1111001111101 01111101110111 01010101010101 011010111010101 1111110111110110 011101011101110 11110101110011 111111010111 010111101111 1111100011101 01010101010101 01000101110101 1011011110111 1101001010111 1101 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 3,663 |
Words | 652 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 55, 2 |
Lines Amount | 58 |
Letters per line (avg) | 49 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 938 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 215 |
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"Chapter-House, Furness Abbey" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/52434/chapter-house%2C-furness-abbey>.
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