Analysis of Morality.

Robert Crawford 1959 (Bellshill)



Evil itself may be but good disguised,
As many a virtue now was once a vice,
Or held to be such by the moralists;
Or as even in the eyes of foreigners
Our virtues may be vices, theirs to us
As vicious too. We make us new laws still,
And hold that finable and barred to-day
That was but yesterday allowable.
Our neighbours haply no such laws enact,
And privilege what we make punitive.
So right and wrong are still conditional,
And there's no absolute morality
In all the world; for conscience herself is
Full oft but Custom's creature, whom he keeps,
Who sees with him, and hears with him, and acts
As by his power of attorney still.


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJHKLMNF
Poetic Form
Metre 1001111101 11001011101 1111110100 11100011100 10101110111 1101111111 01110111 111100100 101111101 010111100 1101110100 011100100 0101110011 111110111 1111011101 1111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 626
Words 121
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 496
Words per stanza (avg) 119
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

36 sec read
144

Robert Crawford

Robert Crawford FRSE FBA is a Scottish poet, scholar and critic. He is currently Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.  more…

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