Analysis of The Incomparable Soporific Doctor

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



Sweet, sleeky Doctor! dear pacific soul!
Lay at the beef, and suck the vital bowl!
Still let the involving smoke around thee fly,
And broad-looked dulness settle in thine eye.
Ah! soft in down these dainty limbs repose,
And in the very lap of slumber doze;
But chiefly on the lazy day of grace,
Call forth the lambent glories of thy face;
If aught the thoughts of dinner can prevail,
And sure the Sunday's dinner cannot fail,
To the thin church in sleepy pomp proceed,
And lean on the lethargic book thy head;
Those eyes wipe often with the hallowed lawn,
Profoundly nod, immeasurably yawn;
Slow let the prayers by thy meek lips be sung,
Nor let thy thoughts be distanced by thy tongue;
If e'er the lingerers are within a call,
Or if on prayers thou deign'st to think at all.
Yet - only yet - the swimming head we bend;
But when serene, the pulpit you ascend,
Through every joint a gentle horror creeps,
And round you the consenting audience sleeps.
So when an ass with sluggish front appears,
The horses start, and prick their quivering ears;
But soon as ere the sage is heard to bray,
The fields all thunder, and they bound away.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFGHHIIJJKKLLMMNN
Poetic Form
Metre 111010101 1101010101 11001010111 011110011 1101110101 0001011101 1101010111 110110111 1101110101 010110101 1011010101 0110010111 1111010101 010101001 1101111111 1111110111 1100110101 11111111111 1101010111 1101010101 11001010101 01100101001 1111110101 01010111001 1111011111 0111001101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,120
Words 209
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 885
Words per stanza (avg) 207
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:03 min read
67

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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