Analysis of Of the Last Verses in the Book
Edmund Waller 1606 (Coleshill) – 1687
When we for age could neither read nor write,
The subject made us able to indite.
The soul, with nobler resolutions deckt,
The body stooping, does herself erect:
No mortal parts are requisite to raise
Her, that unbodied can her Maker praise.
The seas are quiet, when the winds give o'er,
So calm are we, when passions are no more:
For then we know how vain it was to boast
Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost.
Clouds of affection from our younger eyes
Conceal that emptiness, which age descries.
The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made;
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become
As they draw near to their eternal home:
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.
Scheme | AAAXBB XXXXXB CCXXDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110111 0011110101 011100101 0101010101 1101110011 01110101 01110101110 1111110111 1111111111 1101110111 11010110101 011100111 0111010001 1011111111 1011010101 1111110101 1001111111 110101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 762 |
Words | 141 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 202 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
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"Of the Last Verses in the Book" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9317/of-the-last-verses-in-the-book>.
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