Fragment: What Men Gain Fairly
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
What men gain fairly -- that they should possess,
And children may inherit idleness,
From him who earns it—This is understood;
Private injustice may be general good.
But he who gains by base and armed wrong,
Or guilty fraud, or base compliances,
May be despoiled; even as a stolen dress
Is stripped from a convicted thief; and he
Left in the nakedness of infamy.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 19 sec read
- 391 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCCDAAEE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 364 |
Words | 66 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 9 |
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"Fragment: What Men Gain Fairly" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29105/fragment:-what-men-gain-fairly>.
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