Analysis of Of The Flie At The Candle
John Bunyan 1628 (Elstow, Bedfordshire) – 1688 (London)
hat ails this fly thus desperately to enter
A combat with the candle? Will she venture
To clash at light? Away, thou silly fly;
Thus doing thou wilt burn thy wings and die.
But 'tis a folly her advice to give,
She'll kill the candle, or she will not live.
Slap, says she, at it; then she makes retreat,
So wheels about, and doth her blows repeat.
Nor doth the candle let her quite escape,
But gives some little check unto the ape:
Throws up her heels it doth, so down she falls,
Where she lies sprawling, and for succour calls.
When she recovers, up she gets again,
And at the candle comes with might and main,
But now behold, the candle takes the fly,
And holds her, till she doth by burning die.
This candle is an emblem of that light
Our gospel gives in this our darksome night.
The fly a lively picture is of those
That hate and do this gospel light oppose.
At last the gospel doth become their snare,
Doth them with burning hands in pieces tear.
Scheme | AABBXXCCDDEEXXBB FFGGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111000110 01010101110 1111011101 1101111101 1101000111 1101011111 1111111101 1101010101 1101010101 1111011001 1101111111 111100111 1101011101 0101011101 1101010101 0101111101 1101110111 10101011011 0101010111 1101110101 1101010111 1111010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 948 |
Words | 185 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 6 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 368 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 91 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 99 Views
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"Of The Flie At The Candle" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22139/of-the-flie-at-the-candle>.
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