Analysis of Cemetery of the Smolensko Church
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
They gather, with the summer in their hands,
The summer from their distant vallies bringing;
They gather round the church in pious bands,
With funeral array, and solemn singing.
The dead are their companions; many days
Have past since they were laid to their last slumber;
And in the hurry of life's crowded ways,
Small space has been for memory to cumber.
But now the past comes back again, and death
Asketh its mournful tribute of the living;
And memories that were garnered at the heart,
The treasures kept from busier hours are giving.
The mother kneeleth at a little tomb,
And sees one sweet face shining from beneath it;
She has brought all the early flowers that bloom,
In the small garden round their home, to wreath it.
Friend thinks on friend; and youth comes back again
To that one moment of awakened feeling;
And prayers, such prayers as never rise in vain,
Call down the heaven to which they are appealing.
It is a superstitious rite and old,
Yet having with all higher things connexion;
Prayers, tears, redeem a world so harsh and cold,
The future has its hope, the past its deep affection.
The Cemetery of the Smolensko Church is situated about two versts from Petersburgh, on one of the islands on the mouth of the Neva, and less than a quarter of a mile from the gulf of Finland. The curious ceremony represented takes place yearly, when the Russians gather from all parts, to scatter flowers on the graves, and to mourn over the dead, and afterwards proceed to regale themselves with soup, fruit of all kinds, and wine; in many instances spreading their cloths on the very graves over which they had been bitterly mourning.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XBXB EFEF GBXB HGHX B |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010011 0101110110 1101010101 11000101010 0111010101 11110111110 0001011101 11111100110 1101110101 1110101010 01001010101 0101110010110 010110101 01111101011 11110101011 00110111111 1111011101 11110101010 0111110101 110101111010 110010101 110111011 1101011101 0101110111010 0100101111000111111110101011010011010101101110100100010111010101011111010101011100101000111011111110101010010111010110111110010 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,617 |
Words | 290 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 52 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 187 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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"Cemetery of the Smolensko Church" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/52645/cemetery-of-the-smolensko-church>.
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