Analysis of The Shadow Of Night
George Chapman 1559 (Hitchin) – 1634
...
Fall, Hercules, from heaven, in tempests hurl'd,
And cleanse this beastly stable of the world;
Or bend thy brazen bow against the Sun,
As in Tartessus, when thou hadst begun
Thy task of oxen: heat in more extremes
Than thou wouldst suffer, with his envious beams.
Now make him leave the world to Night and dreams.
Never were virtue's labours so envied
As in this light: shoot, shoot, and stoop his pride.
Suffer no more his lustful rays to get
The Earth with issue: let him still be set
In Somnus' thickets: bound about the brows,
With pitchy vapours, and with ebon boughs.
Rich taper'd sanctuary of the blest,
Palace of Ruth, made all of tears, and rest,
To thy black shades and desolat{.i}on
I consecrate my life; and living moan,
Where furies shall for ever fighting be,
And adders hiss the world for hating me;
Foxes shall bark, and night ravens belch in groans,
And owls shall hollo my confus{.i}ons
There will I furnish up my funeral bed,
Strew'd with the bones and relics of the dead.
Atlas shall let th' Olympic burthen fall,
To cover my untombed face withal.
And when as well, the matter of our kind,
As the material substance of the mind,
Shall cease their revolutions, in abode
Of such impure and ugly period,
As the old essence, and insensive prime:
Then shall the ruins of the fourfold time,
Turn'd to that lump (as rapting torrents rise),
For ever murmur forth my miseries.
Scheme | AABBCCCXXDDEE FFXXGGXXHHIIJJXXKKXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 110110011 011110101 1111010101 10111101 1111010101 11110111001 1111011101 10011110 1011110111 1011110111 0111011111 011010101 1110111 110100101 1011111101 11110111 110110101 111110101 011011101 10110110101 01111111 11110111001 1101010101 10111101011 1101111 01110101101 10010010101 111010001 1101010100 10110011 1101010111 111111101 1101011100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,437 |
Words | 252 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 20 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 541 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 125 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 129 Views
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