Analysis of The Dead Man Walking
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
They hail me as one living,
But don't they know
That I have died of late years,
Untombed although?
I am but a shape that stands here,
A pulseless mould,
A pale past picture, screening
Ashes gone cold.
Not at a minute's warning,
Not in a loud hour,
For me ceased Time's enchantments
In hall and bower.
There was no tragic transit,
No catch of breath,
When silent seasons inched me
On to this death ...
-- A Troubadour-youth I rambled
With Life for lyre,
The beats of being raging
In me like fire.
But when I practised eyeing
The goal of men,
It iced me, and I perished
A little then.
When passed my friend, my kinsfolk,
Through the Last Door,
And left me standing bleakly,
I died yet more;
And when my Love's heart kindled
In hate of me,
Wherefore I knew not, died I
One more degree.
And if when I died fully
I cannot say,
And changed into the corpse-thing
I am to-day,
Yet is it that, though whiling
The time somehow
In walking, talking, smiling,
I live not now.
Scheme | ABCB XDAD AECE XFGF HXAE AIXI AJXJ HGXG GKAK ALAL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (90%) Tetractys (30%) Etheree (28%) |
Metre | 1111110 1111 1111111 11 11101111 011 0111010 1011 1101010 100110 11111 01010 1111010 1111 1101011 1111 0101110 1111 0111010 01110 111110 0111 1110110 0101 111111 1011 011101 1111 0111110 0111 111111 1101 0111110 1101 0101011 1111 111111 011 0101010 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 931 |
Words | 185 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 74 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 29, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 159 Views
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"The Dead Man Walking" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36502/the-dead-man-walking>.
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