Elegy for Himself Essay -- Elegy for Himself Chidiock Tichborne Essays

Elegy for HimselfTichborne was not even thirty when he was executed and his bitternessat his bread and butter ending almost before it is begun can be seen. And now Idie and now I am but made He was sentenced to finale for being partof a Catholic plot to murder Elizabeth. He wrote this poem just threedays before he was to meet with death.The note of hand of Tichbornes poem is one of regret and sorrow that his lifeis being ended before its time and that what is left of his life willbe very unpleasant.In Elegy For Himself we can tell that its verses are sextains - sixlined verses with a rhyming scheme ababcc. What is both interestingand unusual in Tichbornes structure is the authority of the caesura inevery line - the pause in the middle of a metrical line. The poem has5 beats and adds to the melancholic feeling with its sad, slow rhythm.When I read this poem and truly hear it, I picture a man huddled inthe corner of his cell, awaiting death, listening to the slow ploddingsounds of the jailors feet, who comes to name yet another man to hisfate. I also can imagin...