Analysis of A Tardy Apology
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
You ask me, friend,
Why I don't send
The long since due-and-paid-for numbers;
Why, songless, I
As drunken lie
Abandoned to Lethean slumbers.
Long time ago
(As well you know)
I started in upon that carmen;
My work was vain,--
But why complain?
When gods forbid, how helpless are men!
Some ages back,
The sage Anack
Courted a frisky Samian body,
Singing her praise
In metered phrase
As flowing as his bowls of toddy.
Till I was hoarse
Might I discourse
Upon the cruelties of Venus;
'T were waste of time
As well of rhyme,
For you've been there yourself, Maecenas!
Perfect your bliss
If some fair miss
Love you yourself and _not_ your minae;
I, fortune's sport,
All vainly court
The beauteous, polyandrous Phryne!
Scheme | AABCCB DDEFFX XDXGGA HHXIIB JJEKKE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (43%) Etheree (27%) |
Metre | 1111 1111 011101110 111 1101 010111 1101 1111 110001110 1111 1101 110111011 1101 011 10010110 1001 0101 11011111 1111 1110 01010110 10111 1111 1111011 0111 1111 11010111 1101 1101 01101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 689 |
Words | 128 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 83 Views
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"A Tardy Apology" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12885/a-tardy-apology>.
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