Age and Death
Come closer, kind, white, long-familiar friend,Embrace me, fold me to thy broad, soft breast.Life has grown strange and cold, but thou dost bendMild eyes of blessing wooing to my rest.So often hast thou come, and from my sideSo many hast thou lured, I only bideThy beck, to follow glad thy steps divine.Thy world is peopled for me; this world's bare.Through all these years my couch thou didst prepare.Thou art supreme Love--kiss me--I am thine!
Words in this poem
- closer n.
- One who, or that which, closes; specifically, a boot closer. See under Boot.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- peopled a.
- Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Age and Death is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #3295; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emma Lazarus, Age and Death, in Admetus, and Other Poems (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/age-and-death.html, id L01931.
Form and metre
Age and Death is 10 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCDEED. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABCCDEED friendA · breastB · bendA · restB · sideC · bideC · divineD · bareE · prepareE · thineD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come closer, kind, white, long-familiar friend, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Embrace me, fold me to thy broad, soft breast. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Life has grown strange and cold, but thou dost bend | 10 | ·········· |
| Mild eyes of blessing wooing to my rest. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| So often hast thou come, and from my side | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| So many hast thou lured, I only bide | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Thy beck, to follow glad thy steps divine. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thy world is peopled for me; this world's bare. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Through all these years my couch thou didst prepare. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Thou art supreme Love--kiss me--I am thine! | 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.