Analysis of Lilies Without, Lilies Within

George Wither 1588 (Bentworth) – 1667



Can I think the Guide of Heaven
Hath so beautifully given
Outward features, 'cause He meant
To have made less excellent
Your divine part? Or suppose
Beauty, goodness doth oppose;
Like those fools, who do despair
To find any, good and fair?
Rather there I seek a mind
Most excelling, where I find
God hath to the body lent
Most-beseeming ornament,
And I do believe it true,
That, as we the body view
Nearer to perfection grow;
So, the soul herself doth show:
Other more and more excelling
In her powers; as in her dwelling.


Scheme AABCDDEEFFBCGGHHII
Poetic Form
Metre 11101110 1110010 1010111 1111100 1011101 1010101 1111101 1110101 1011101 1010111 1110101 11100 0110111 1110101 1010101 1010111 10101010 001010010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 513
Words 97
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 410
Words per stanza (avg) 95
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
43

George Wither

George Wither was an English poet, pamphleteer, and satirist. He was a prolific writer who adopted a deliberate plainness of style; he was several times imprisoned. C. V. Wedgwood wrote "every so often in the barren acres of his verse is a stretch enlivened by real wit and observation, or fired with a sudden intensity of feeling". more…

All George Wither poems | George Wither Books

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