Analysis of Friend In The Desolate Time

Erik Johan Stagnelius 1793 (Öland) – 1823 (Stockholm)



Friend, in the desolate time, when your soul is enshrouded in darkness
   When, in a deep abyss, memory and feeling die out,
Intellect timidly gropes among shadowy forms and illusions
   Heart can no longer sigh, eye is unable to weep;
When, from your night-clouded soul the wings of fire have fallen
   And you, to nothing, afraid, feel yourself sinking once more,
Say, who rescues you then?—Who is the comforting angel
   Brings to your innermost soul order and beauty again,
Building once more your fragmented world, restoring the fallen
   Altar, and when it is raised, lighting the sacred flame?-—
None but the powerful being who first from the limitless darkness
   Kissed to life seraphs and woke numberless suns to their dance.
None but the holy Word who called the worlds into existence
   And in whose power the worlds move on their paths to this day.
Therefore, rejoice, oh friend, and sing in the darkness of sorrow:
   Night is the mother of day, Chaos the neighbor of God.


Scheme ABCDEFGHEIAJKLMN
Poetic Form
Metre 10010011111010010 10010110001011 1010010110010010 1111011101011 111110101110110 01110011011011 1111111010010 1111011001001 101111001010010 1001111100101 11010010111010010 11110111111 110101110101010 00110011111111 10111010010110 11010111001011
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 983
Words 170
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 48
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 766
Words per stanza (avg) 166
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 26, 2023

51 sec read
95

Erik Johan Stagnelius

Erik Johan Stagnelius was born October 14, 1793 in Gärdslösa, on the island Öland, Sweden, and died on April 3, 1823 in Stockholm. He was a Romantic poet and playwright. 1810 to 1840 was a blossoming time in Swedish poetry, and there were several writers of distinguished merit, among them Esaias Tegnér, Erik Gustaf Geijer, Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom and Erik Johan Stagnelius. The brief and mysterious life and death of Erik Johan Stagnelius have given a romantic interest to all that is connected with his name. more…

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