Analysis of To Mother Venus
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
O mother Venus, quit, I pray,
Your violent assailing!
The arts, forsooth, that fired my youth
At last are unavailing;
My blood runs cold, I'm getting old,
And all my powers are failing.
Speed thou upon thy white swans' wings,
And elsewhere deign to mellow
With thy soft arts the anguished hearts
Of swains that writhe and bellow;
And right away seek out, I pray,
Young Paullus,--he's your fellow!
You'll find young Paullus passing fair,
Modest, refined, and tony;
Go, now, incite the favored wight!
With Venus for a crony
He'll outshine all at feast and ball
And conversazione!
Then shall that godlike nose of thine
With perfumes be requited,
And then shall prance in Salian dance
The girls and boys delighted,
And while the lute blends with the flute
Shall tender loves be plighted.
But as for me, as you can see,
I'm getting old and spiteful.
I have no mind to female kind,
That once I deemed delightful;
No more brim up the festive cup
That sent me home at night full.
Why do I falter in my speech,
O cruel Ligurine?
Why do I chase from place to place
In weather wet and shiny?
Why down my nose forever flows
The tear that's cold and briny?
Scheme | ABXBCB XDXDAD XEXEXE XCXXXC EFXFXX XEXEXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 1100010 01111011 111010 11111101 01110110 11011111 011110 11110101 1111010 01011111 111110 1111101 1001010 11010101 1101010 1111101 01 1111111 10111 0111011 0101010 01011101 110111 11111111 1101010 1111111 1111010 11110101 1111111 11110011 1101 11111111 0101010 11110101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,116 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 148 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 45 Views
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"To Mother Venus" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13130/to-mother-venus>.
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