“Tamerlane” is a dramatic monologue that recounts a lifetime of experiences; however, the poem itself takes place within one single scene as the title character, Tamerlane, an anglicization of the Turkic ruler Timur Lenk, speaks to a priest while awaiting his impending death. The speaker establishes the scene in the opening line: “Kind solace in a dying hour!” (Line 1). Here, he is looking for understanding and compassion after a lifetime of pride and sin. The monologue begins with the speaker telling the priest that he feels ashamed of the “searing glory” he sought for so long (Line 17); in spite of his accolades, he misses the early simplicity of his youth. Its purity makes the stretch of time that followed feel empty. The speaker refers to that emptiness as a “knell” (Line 26), creating a correlation between his lost youth and his own end of life.

The speaker turns inward and recounts how he came to be the person speaking to the priest now. He wasn’t born into power, but he took it for himself through strategy and determination. This, in his opinion, puts him in a long line of rulers with a “proud spirit” (Line 33), linking them not by bloodline but by their “kingly mind[s]” (Line 32).