Death
They die--the dead return not--MiserySits near an open grave and calls them over,A Youth with hoary hair and haggard eye--They are the names of kindred, friend and lover,Which he so feebly calls--they all are gone--Fond wretch, all dead! those vacant names alone,This most familiar scene, my pain--These tombs--alone remain.
Misery, my sweetest friend--oh, weep no more!Thou wilt not be consoled--I wonder not!For I have seen thee from thy dwelling's doorWatch the calm sunset with them, and this spotWas even as bright and calm, but transitory,And now thy hopes are gone, thy hair is hoary;This most familiar scene, my pain--These tombs--alone remain.
Words in this poem
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Death is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Death, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/death.html, id L16320.
Form and metre
Death is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% 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 ------AA misery · over · eye · lover · gone · alone · painA · remainA
- 2 ABABCCDD moreA · notB · doorA · spotB · transitoryC · hoaryC · painD · remainD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They die--the dead return not--Misery | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| Sits near an open grave and calls them over, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A Youth with hoary hair and haggard eye-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| They are the names of kindred, friend and lover, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Which he so feebly calls--they all are gone-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Fond wretch, all dead! those vacant names alone, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| This most familiar scene, my pain-- | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| These tombs--alone remain. | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| Misery, my sweetest friend--oh, weep no more! | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Thou wilt not be consoled--I wonder not! | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| For I have seen thee from thy dwelling's door | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Watch the calm sunset with them, and this spot | 10 | ···/······ |
| Was even as bright and calm, but transitory, | 11 | ·/·····/˘·˘ |
| And now thy hopes are gone, thy hair is hoary; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| This most familiar scene, my pain-- | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| These tombs--alone remain. | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
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.