Analysis of Elegy I: Jealousy

John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)



Fond woman, which wouldst have thy husband die,
And yet complain'st of his great jealousy;
If swol'n with poison, he lay in his last bed,
His body with a sere-bark covered,
Drawing his breath, as thick and short, as can
The nimblest crocheting musician,
Ready with loathsome vomiting to spew
His soul out of one hell, into a new,
Made deaf with his poor kindred's howling cries,
Begging with few feigned tears, great legacies,
Thou wouldst not weep, but jolly and frolic be,
As a slave, which tomorrow should be free;
Yet weep'st thou, when thou seest him hungerly
Swallow his own death, hearts-bane jealousy.
O give him many thanks, he's courteous,
That in suspecting kindly warneth us
Wee must not, as we used, flout openly,
In scoffing riddles, his deformity;
Nor at his board together being sat,
With words, nor touch, scarce looks adulterate;
Nor when he swol'n, and pampered with great fare
Sits down, and snorts, caged in his basket chair,
Must we usurp his own bed any more,
Nor kiss and play in his house, as before.
Now I see many dangers; for that is
His realm, his castle, and his diocese.
But if, as envious men, which would revile
Their Prince, or coin his gold, themselves exile
Into another country, and do it there,
We play in another house, what should we fear?
There we will scorn his houshold policies,
His seely plots, and pensionary spies,
As the inhabitants of Thames' right side
Do London's Mayor; or Germans, the Pope's pride.


Scheme ABCDEFGGHIBBJBKKBBLMNNOOPIJJNQIHRR
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111101 01011111100 11110110111 110101110 1011110111 01010010 1011010011 1111110101 111111101 1011111100 11111100101 101101111 111111111 1011111100 1111011100 100101011 1111111100 011010100 1111010101 111111010 1111010111 1101101101 111111101 1101011101 1111010111 111100110 11110011101 111111011 01010100111 11001011111 111111100 1101011 1001001111 11010110011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,426
Words 257
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 34
Lines Amount 34
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,129
Words per stanza (avg) 255
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

1:19 min read
126

John Donne

John Donne was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. more…

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