Analysis of Upon A Sheet Of White Paper
John Bunyan 1628 (Elstow, Bedfordshire) – 1688 (London)
This subject is unto the foulest pen,
Or fairest handled by the sons of men.
'Twill also show what is upon it writ,
Be it wisely, or nonsense for want of wit,
Each blot and blur it also will expose
To thy next readers, be they friends or foes.
Some souls are like unto this blank or sheet,
Though not in whiteness. The next man they meet,
If wise or fool, debauched or deluder,
Or what you will, the dangerous intruder
May write thereon, to cause that man to err
In doctrine or in life, with blot and blur.
Nor will that soul conceal from who observes,
But show how foul it is, wherein it swerves.
A reading man may know who was the writer,
And, by the hellish nonsense, the inditer.
Scheme | AABBCC DDEEEEXCEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101110011 1101010111 1101110111 11101101111 1101110101 1111011111 1111101111 1101001111 1111111 11110100010 1101111111 0101011101 1111011101 1111110111 01011111010 010101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 687 |
Words | 135 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 10 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 264 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 107 Views
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"Upon A Sheet Of White Paper" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22161/upon-a-sheet-of-white-paper>.
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