Analysis of To the Additional Examiner for 1875
James Clerk Maxwell 1831 (Edinburgh, Scotland) – 1879 (Cambridge, England)
Queen Cram went straying
Where Tait was swaying,
In just hands weighing,
With care immense,
Dry proofs made pleasant
By Routh or Besant
For one who hasn’t
Got too much sense.
Nor marked how, quicker
Than mounts the liquor
In brains made thicker
By College beer,
The murderous maiden,
Mistake, walks laden
With tips forgotten and slips so queer.
How, like a spider,
She still spreads wider,
O’er bookwork, rider,
And problem too,
Her flimsy curtain
Of terms uncertain,
Till all seems dirt in
The marker’s view.
For if Cram were not,
Which markers spare not,
Wise men would care not
To pluck too soon,
Seeing all life’s season
Of budding reason
Finds good stiff work for a wooden spoon.
As Tait sat joking,
And marked while smoking,
Still slyly poking
Where jests might hit,
She came, soft-gliding,
Her false face hiding,
Rich food providing
For Tait’s sharp wit.
Through symbols tangled,
The Wranglers wrangled
Like sweet bells jangled
And out of tune.
For though their music
Would soon make you sick
The tides they measure and guide the moon.
Cram found no cover
Wherein to hover,
For still above her
Tait held his pen,
Which, onward creeping,
Might find her sleeping,
But left her weeping
O’er ruined men.
For, like a blister,
Mistake, Cram’s sister,
Would wring and twist her
In awkward ways,
Till all the knowledge
Acquired at College
Had passed from thought(49) in the last six days.
Scheme | AAABCCCBDDDEFFE DDDGFFXGHHHIFFI AAAJAAAJKKKILLI DDDMAAAMDDDNXXN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (45%) Etheree (32%) |
Metre | 11110 11110 01110 1101 11110 11110 1111 1111 11110 11010 01110 1101 010010 01110 110100111 11010 11110 1110 0101 01010 11010 11110 0101 11101 11011 11111 1111 101110 11010 111110101 11110 01110 11010 1111 11110 01110 11010 1111 11010 010010 11110 0111 11110 11111 011100101 11110 01110 11010 1111 11010 11010 11010 1101 11010 01110 11010 0101 11010 010110 111100111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,350 |
Words | 242 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 15, 15, 15 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 274 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 135 Views
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"To the Additional Examiner for 1875" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20081/to-the-additional-examiner-for-1875>.
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