Analysis of The Churchyard
HOW slowly creeps the hand of Time
On the old clock’s green-mantled face!
Yea, slowly as those ivies climb,
The hours roll round with patient pace;
The drowsy rooks caw on the tower,
The tame doves hover round and round;
Below, the slow grass hour by hour
Makes green God’s sleeping-ground.
All moves, but nothing here is swift;
The grass grows deep, the green boughs shoot;
From east to west the shadows drift;
The earth feels heavenward underfoot;
The slow stream through the bridge doth stray
With water-lilies on its marge,
And slowly, pil’d with scented hay,
Creeps by the silent barge.
All stirs, but nothing here is loud:
The cushat broods, the cuckoo cries;
Faint, far up, under a white cloud,
The lark trills soft to earth and skies;
And underneath the green graves rest;
And through the place, with slow footfalls,
With snowy cambric on his breast,
The old gray Vicar crawls.
And close at hand, to see him come,
Clustering at the playground gate,
The urchins of the schoolhouse, dumb
And bashful, hang the head and wait;
The little maidens curtsey deep,
The boys their forelocks touch meanwhile,
The Vicar sees them, half asleep,
And smiles a sleepy smile.
Slow as the hand on the clock’s face,
Slow as the white cloud in the sky,
He cometh now with tottering pace
To the old vicarage hard by:
Smother’d it stands in ivy leaves,
Laurels and yews make dark the ground;
The swifts that build beneath the eaves
Wheel in still circles round.
And from the portal, green and dark,
He glances at the church-clock old—
Gray soul! why seek his eyes to mark
The creeping of that finger cold?
He cannot see, but still as stone
He pauses, listening for the chime,
And hears from that green tower intone
The eternal voice of Time.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EXEXFGFG HIHIJBJX KLKLMNMN BOBOPDPD QRQRSASA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 1011111 1101111 010111101 010111010 01110101 0101110110 111101 11110111 01110111 1111011 011101 01110111 11010111 01011101 110101 11110111 011011 11110011 01111101 0010111 0101111 1101111 011101 01111111 1001011 0101011 01010101 0101011 011111 01011101 010101 11011011 11011001 110111001 101111 1110101 10011101 01110101 101101 01010101 11010111 11111111 01011101 11011111 110100101 011111001 0010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,825 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 226 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 69 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Churchyard" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39769/the-churchyard>.
Discuss this William Cosmo Monkhouse 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