Mortality
Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust,What of his loving, what of his lust?What of his passion, what of his pain?What of his poverty, what of his pride?Earth, the great mother, has called him again:Deeply he sleeps, the world's verdict defied.Shall he be tried again? Shall he go free?Who shall the court convene? Where shall it be?No answer on the land, none from the sea.Only we know that as he did, we must:You with your theories, you with your trust,--Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust!
Words in this poem
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- 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
Mortality is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Mortality, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/mortality.html, id L00615.
Form and metre
Mortality is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABCBCDDDAAA dustA · lustA · painB · prideC · againB · defiedC · freeD · beD · seaD · mustA · trustA · dustA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| What of his loving, what of his lust? | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| What of his passion, what of his pain? | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| What of his poverty, what of his pride? | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Earth, the great mother, has called him again: | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Deeply he sleeps, the world's verdict defied. | 10 | /˘····/˘˘/ |
| Shall he be tried again? Shall he go free? | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Who shall the court convene? Where shall it be? | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| No answer on the land, none from the sea. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Only we know that as he did, we must: | 10 | /˘········ |
| You with your theories, you with your trust,-- | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust! | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
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.