Analysis of Psalm 58
Isaac Watts 1674 (Southampton, Hampshire) – 1748 (Stoke Newington, Middlesex)
Warning to magistrates.
Judges, who rule the world by laws,
Will ye despise the righteous cause,
When th' injured poor before you stands?
Dare ye condemn the righteous poor,
And let rich sinners 'scape secure,
While gold and greatness bribe your hands?
Have ye forgot, or never knew,
That God will judge the judges too?
High in the heav'ns his justice reigns;
Yet you invade the rights of God,
And send your bold decrees abroad,
To bind the conscience in your chains.
A poisoned arrow is your tongue,
The arrow sharp, the poison strong,
And death attends where'er it wounds:
You hear no counsels, cries, or tears;
So the deaf adder stops her ears
Against the power of charming sounds.
Break out their teeth, eternal God,
Those teeth of lions dyed in blood;
And crush the serpents in the dust:
As empty chaff when whirlwinds rise
Before the sweeping tempest flies,
So let their hopes and names be lost.
Th' Almighty thunders from the sky,
Their grandeur melts, their titles die,
As hills of snow dissolve and run,
Or snails that perish in their slime,
Or births that come before their time,
Vain births, that never see the sun.
Thus shall the vengeance of the Lord
Safety and joy to saints afford;
And all that hear shall join and say,
"Sure there's a God that rules on high,
A God that hears his children cry,
And will their suff'rings well repay."
Scheme | X XXAXXA BBCDXC XXXXXX DXXEEX FFGHHG IIJFFJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10110 10110111 11010101 1111010111 11010101 01110101 11010111 11011101 11110101 10011101 11010111 01110101 11010011 01010111 01010101 01011011 11110111 10110101 010101101 11110101 11110101 01010001 1101111 01010101 11110111 1101010101 10111101 11110101 11110011 11110111 11110101 11010101 10011101 01111101 11011111 01111101 0111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,320 |
Words | 244 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 151 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 57 Views
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"Psalm 58" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19785/psalm-58>.
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