Analysis of Farewell Ungrateful Traitor

John Dryden 1631 (Aldwincle) – 1631 (London)



Farewell ungrateful traitor,
Farewell my perjured swain,
Let never injured creature
Believe a man again.
The pleasure of possessing
Surpasses all expressing,
But 'tis too short a blessing,
And love too long a pain.

'Tis easy to deceive us
In pity of your pain,
But when we love you leave us
To rail at you in vain.
Before we have descried it,
There is no bliss beside it,
But she that once has tried it
Will never love again.

The passion you pretended
Was only to obtain,
But when the charm is ended
The charmer you disdain.
Your love by ours we measure
Till we have lost our treasure,
But dying is a pleasure,
When living is a pain.


Scheme ABACDDDB EBEBFFFC GBGBAAAB
Poetic Form
Metre 101010 11101 1101010 010101 0101010 0101010 1111010 011101 1101011 010111 1111111 111101 011111 1111011 1111111 110101 0101010 110101 1101110 010101 11110110 11111010 1101010 110101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 618
Words 121
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 166
Words per stanza (avg) 40
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

36 sec read
2,753

John Dryden

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made Poet Laureate in 1668. more…

All John Dryden poems | John Dryden Books

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