Death Expected and Welcomed
Welcome sweet Rest, by me so long Desir'd,Who have with Sins and Griefs so long been tir'd;And welcome Death, my Father's Messenger;Of my Felicity the hastener.
Welcome good Angels, who, for me distrest,Are come to guard me to Eternal Rest.Welcome, O Christ, who hast my Soul Redeem'd,Whose Favor I have more than Life esteem'd.
Oh! do not now my sinful soul forsake,But to thyself thy Servant gath'ring take.Into thy Hands I recommend my Spirit,Trusting through Thee Eternal Life t'inherit.
Words in this poem
- hastener n.
- One who hastens.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Death Expected and Welcomed is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Day of Doom; Or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment With Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #58716; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Michael Wigglesworth, Death Expected and Welcomed, in The Day of Doom (1662), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #58716, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wigglesworth-doom/death-expected-and-welcomed.html, id L09218.
Form and metre
Death Expected and Welcomed is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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-- desir'dA · tir'dA · messenger · hastener
- 2 AABB distrestA · restA · redeem'dB · esteem'dB
- 3 AA-- forsakeA · takeA · spirit · t'inherit
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome sweet Rest, by me so long Desir'd, | 11 | /˘······˘/˘ |
| Who have with Sins and Griefs so long been tir'd; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And welcome Death, my Father's Messenger; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Of my Felicity the hastener. | 10 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Welcome good Angels, who, for me distrest, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Are come to guard me to Eternal Rest. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Welcome, O Christ, who hast my Soul Redeem'd, | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Whose Favor I have more than Life esteem'd. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Oh! do not now my sinful soul forsake, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| But to thyself thy Servant gath'ring take. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Into thy Hands I recommend my Spirit, | 11 | ······˘/·/˘ |
| Trusting through Thee Eternal Life t'inherit. | 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.