Analysis of Against Idleness and Mischief
Isaac Watts 1674 (Southampton, Hampshire) – 1748 (Stoke Newington, Middlesex)
How doth the little busy Bee
Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
From every opening Flower!
How skilfully she builds her Cell!
How neat she spreads the Wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet Food she makes.
In Works of Labour or of Skill
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some Mischief still
For idle Hands to do.
In Books, or Work, or healthful Play
Let my first Years be past,
That I may give for every Day
Some good Account at last.
Scheme | XABA CXCX DEDE BFBF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 11010101 0111010 01010101 110010010 111101 111101 0111111 101111 0111111 111101 11011101 110111 01111101 111111 111111001 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 467 |
Words | 95 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 28 sec read
- 740 Views
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"Against Idleness and Mischief" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19415/against-idleness-and-mischief>.
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