Death
It is not death, that sometime in a sighThis eloquent breath shall take its speechless flight;That sometime these bright stars, that now replyIn sunlight to the sun, shall set in night;That warm conscious flesh shall perish quite,And all life's ruddy springs forget to flow;That thoughts shall cease, and the immortal spriteBe lapp'd in alien clay and laid below;It is not death to know this,--but to knowThat pious thoughts, which visit at new gravesIn tender pilgrimage, will cease to goSo duly and so oft,--and when grass wavesOver the past-away, there may be thenNo resurrection in the minds of men.
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
- 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,]
- speechless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech.
- sprite n.
- A spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. [OE. sprit, F. esprit, fr. L. spiritus. See Spirit, and cf. Sprightly.]
- pilgrimage n.
- The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. [OE. pilgrimage, pelgrinage; cf. F. pèlerinage.]
- resurrection n.
- A rising again; the resumption of vigor. [F. résurrection, L. resurrectio, fr. resurgere, resurrectum, to rise again; pref. re- re- + surgere to rise. See Source.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Death is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; 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 Hood, Death, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/death.html, id L20061.
Form and metre
Death is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBCCDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABABBCBCCDCDEE sighA · flightB · replyA · nightB · quiteB · flowC · spriteB · belowC · knowC · gravesD · goC · wavesD · thenE · menE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It is not death, that sometime in a sigh | 10 | ·····/···· |
| This eloquent breath shall take its speechless flight; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| That sometime these bright stars, that now reply | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| In sunlight to the sun, shall set in night; | 10 | ·/········ |
| That warm conscious flesh shall perish quite, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| And all life's ruddy springs forget to flow; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| That thoughts shall cease, and the immortal sprite | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Be lapp'd in alien clay and laid below; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| It is not death to know this,--but to know | 10 | ·········· |
| That pious thoughts, which visit at new graves | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| In tender pilgrimage, will cease to go | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| So duly and so oft,--and when grass waves | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Over the past-away, there may be then | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| No resurrection in the minds of men. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
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.