Analysis of Consistency
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
Should painter attach to a fair human head
The thick, turgid neck of a stallion,
Or depict a spruce lass with the tail of a bass,
I am sure you would guy the rapscallion.
Believe me, dear Pisos, that just such a freak
Is the crude and preposterous poem
Which merely abounds in a torrent of sounds,
With no depth of reason below 'em.
'T is all very well to give license to art,--
The wisdom of license defend I;
But the line should be drawn at the fripperish spawn
Of a mere _cacoethes scribendi_.
It is too much the fashion to strain at effects,--
Yes, that's what's the matter with Hannah!
Our popular taste, by the tyros debased,
Paints each barnyard a grove of Diana!
Should a patron require you to paint a marine,
Would you work in some trees with their barks on?
When his strict orders are for a Japanese jar,
Would you give him a pitcher like Clarkson?
Now, this is my moral: Compose what you may,
And Fame will be ever far distant
Unless you combine with a simple design
A treatment in toto consistent.
Scheme | ABXB XXXX XXCA XDXD XCXB XEXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (50%) |
Metre | 11001101101 011011010 101011101101 11111101 0111111101 1010010010 11001001011 111110011 111101111011 010110011 1011111011 10111 111101011101 111010110 10100110101 111011010 101010111001 1110111111 11110110011 1111010110 11111001111 011110110 01110101001 010010010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 994 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 131 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 130 Views
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"Consistency" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12928/consistency>.
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