Analysis of Playing At Priests
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 (Frankfurt) – 1832 (Weimar)
WITHIN a town where parity
According to old form we see,--
That is to say, where Catholic
And Protestant no quarrels pick,
And where, as in his father's day,
Each worships God in his own way,
We Luth'ran children used to dwell,
By songs and sermons taught as well.
The Catholic clingclang in truth
Sounded more pleasing to our youth,
For all that we encounter'd there,
To us seem'd varied, joyous, fair.
As children, monkeys, and mankind
To ape each other are inclin'd,
We soon, the time to while away,
A game at priests resolved to play.
Their aprons all our sisters lent
For copes, which gave us great content;
And handkerchiefs, embroider'd o'er,
Instead of stoles we also wore;
Gold paper, whereon beasts were traced,
The bishop's brow as mitre graced.
Through house and garden thus in state
We strutted early, strutted late,
Repeating with all proper unction,
Incessantly each holy function.
The best was wanting to the game;
We knew that a sonorous ring
Was here a most important thing;
But Fortune to our rescue came,
For on the ground a halter lay;
We were delighted, and at once
Made it a bellrope for the nonce,
And kept it moving all the day;
In turns each sister and each brother
Acted as sexton to another;
All help'd to swell the joyous throng;
The whole proceeded swimmingly,
And since no actual bell had we,
We all in chorus sang, Ding dong!
Our guileless child's-sport long was hush'd
In memory's tomb, like some old lay;
And yet across my mind it rush'd
With pristine force the other day.
The New-Poetic Catholics
In ev'ry point its aptness fix!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGCCHHIXJJ KKLLM N NMC X XC I IO D AO P CP CQQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011100 01011111 1111110 01001101 01101101 11010111 11110111 11010111 010101 101101101 11110101 11110101 11010011 11110101 11011101 01110111 110110101 11111110 010001010 01111101 1101101 01011101 11010101 111011 01011101 010011010 01110101 11101001 11010101 110110101 11010101 10010011 1101101 01110101 011100110 101101010 11110101 010101 011100111 11010111 101011111 0111111 01011111 11010101 0101010 011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,554 |
Words | 281 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 22, 5, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 55 Views
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"Playing At Priests" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21748/playing-at-priests>.
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