Analysis of John Marston: XII
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
THE BITTERNESS of death and bitterer scorn
Breathes from the broad-leafed aloe-plant whence thou
Wast fain to gather for thy bended brow
A chaplet by no gentler forehead worn.
Grief deep as hell, wrath hardly to be borne,
Ploughed up thy soul till round the furrowing plough
The strange black soil foamed, as a black beaked prow
Bids night-black waves foam where its track has torn.
Too faint the phrase for thee that only saith
Scorn bitterer than the bitterness of death
Pervades the sullen splendour of thy soul,
Where hate and pain make war on force and fraud
And all the strengths of tyrants; whence unflawed
It keeps this noble heart of hatred whole.
Scheme | ABBAABBABCDEED |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010011011 110111111 1111011101 011110101 1111110111 111111011 0111110111 1111111111 1101111101 111010011 010101111 1101111101 010111011 1111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 651 |
Words | 117 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 531 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
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"John Marston: XII" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1345/john-marston%3A-xii>.
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