Analysis of Mithridates
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)
I cannot spare water or wine,
Tobacco-leaf, or poppy, or rose;
From the earth-poles to the Line,
All between that works or grows,
Every thing is kin of mine.
Give me agates for my meat,
Give me cantharids to eat,
From air and ocean bring me foods,
From all zones and altitudes.
From all natures, sharp and slimy,
Salt and basalt, wild and tame,
Tree, and lichen, ape, sea-lion,
Bird and reptile be my game.
Ivy for my fillet band,
Blinding dogwood in my hand,
Hemlock for my sherbet cull me,
And the prussic juice to lull me,
Swing me in the upas boughs,
Vampire-fanned, when I carouse.
Too long shut in strait and few,
Thinly dieted on dew,
I will use the world, and sift it,
To a thousand humors shift it,
As you spin a cherry.
O doleful ghosts, and goblins merry,
O all you virtues, methods, mights;
Means, appliances, delights;
Reputed wrongs, and braggart rights;
Smug routine, and things allowed;
Minorities, things under cloud!
Hither! take me, use me, fill me,
Vein and artery, though ye kill me;
God! I will not be an owl,
But sun me in the Capitol.
Scheme | ABABA CCDD EFXF GGEEHH IIJJEEBKKLLEEXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011011 01111011 1011101 1011111 10011111 1110111 11111 11010111 111010 11101010 1001101 10101110 1010111 1011011 101011 1111011 0011111 110011 1011101 1110101 10111 11101011 1010111 111010 110101010 11110101 1010001 0101011 1010101 01001101 10111111 101001111 1111111 11100100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,033 |
Words | 196 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 4, 6, 15 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 161 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 154 Views
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"Mithridates" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29834/mithridates>.
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