Analysis of The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder
George Canning 1770 (Marylebone, Middlesex) – 1827 (Chiswick, Middlesex)
Friend of Humanity
1'Needy Knife-grinder! whither are you going?
2Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order-
3Bleak blows the blast;-your hat has got a hole in't,
4 So have your breeches!
5'Weary Knife-grinder! little think the proud ones,
6Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike{\-}
7-road, what hard work 'tis crying all day 'knives and
8 'scissors to grind O!'
9'Tell me, Knife-grinder, how you came to grind knives?
10Did some rich man tyranically use you?
11Was it the squire? or parson of the parish?
12 Or the attorney?
13'Was it the squire, for the killing of his game? or
14Covetous parson, for his tithes distraining?
15Or roguish lawyer, made you lose your little
16 All in a lawsuit?
17'(Have you not read the Rights of Man, by Tom Paine?)
18Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids,
19Ready to fall, as soon as you have told your
20 Pitiful story.'
21'Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, sir,
22Only last night a-drinking at the Chequers,
23This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were
24 Torn in a scuffle.
25'Constables came up for to take me into
26Custody; they took me before the justice;
27Justice Oldmixon put me in the parish{\-}
28 Stocks for a vagrant.
29'I should be glad to drink your Honour's health in
30A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence;
31But for my part, I never love to meddle
32 With politics, sir.'
Friend of Humanity
33'I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damn'd first-
34Wretch! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance-
35Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded,
36 Spiritless outcast!'
[Kicks the Knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport of Republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.
Scheme | A bcad dxxx defa gbhx xdga cdch edfx xdhc A xdxx a |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100 1110101110 11011111110 110111110101 1111 1110101011 1011010101 11111101110 10111 11110111111 1111111 11011101010 10010 110110101111 1101111 1110111110 1001 111110111111 1101010111 10111111111 10010 1111111111 1011010101 1111011110 10010 111111101 10011101010 101110010 11010 1111111110 0111111111 11111101110 1101 110100 1111111111 11111111110 10010100010 11 101101011010000110100010000100100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,154 |
Words | 302 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 109 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 74 Views
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"The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14825/the-friend-of-humanity-and-the-knife-grinder>.
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