Lines on the Grave of a Suicide
By strangers left upon a lonely shore,Unknown, unhonoured, was the friendless dead,For child to weep, or widow to deplore,There never came to his unburied head:—All from his dreary habitation fled.Nor will the lanterned fisherman at eveLaunch on that water by the witches’ tower,Where hellebore and hemlock seem to weaveRound its dark vaults a melancholy bower,For spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.They dread to meet thee, poor unfortunate!Whose crime it was, on life’s unfinished roadTo feel the stepdame buffetings of fate,And render back thy being’s heavy load.Ah! once, perhaps, the social passions glowedIn thy devoted bosom—and the handThat smote its kindred heart, might yet be proneTo deeds of mercy. Who may understandThy many woes, poor suicide, unknown?—He who thy being gave shall judge of thee alone.
Words in this poem
- friendless a.
- Destitute of friends; forsaken. [AS. freóndleás.]
- deplore v. t.
- To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines on the Grave of a Suicide is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, Project Gutenberg ebook #59788; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Campbell, Lines on the Grave of a Suicide, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/lines-on-the-grave-of-a-suicide.html, id L24411.
Form and metre
Lines on the Grave of a Suicide is 20 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCDCDDEFEFFGHGHH. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABBCDCDDEFEFFGHGHH shoreA · deadB · deploreA · headB · fledB · eveC · towerD · weaveC · bowerD · hourD · unfortunateE · roadF · fateE · loadF · glowedF · handG · proneH · understandG · unknownH · aloneH
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| By strangers left upon a lonely shore, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Unknown, unhonoured, was the friendless dead, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| For child to weep, or widow to deplore, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| There never came to his unburied head:— | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| All from his dreary habitation fled. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Nor will the lanterned fisherman at eve | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Launch on that water by the witches’ tower, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Where hellebore and hemlock seem to weave | 10 | ·/˘˘·/···· |
| Round its dark vaults a melancholy bower, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| For spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour. | 12 | ·/˘·····˘/˘/ |
| They dread to meet thee, poor unfortunate! | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Whose crime it was, on life’s unfinished road | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| To feel the stepdame buffetings of fate, | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| And render back thy being’s heavy load. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Ah! once, perhaps, the social passions glowed | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| In thy devoted bosom—and the hand | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| That smote its kindred heart, might yet be prone | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To deeds of mercy. Who may understand | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thy many woes, poor suicide, unknown?— | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| He who thy being gave shall judge of thee alone. | 11 | ···/·····˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.