Analysis of Prologue to the True Widow
John Dryden 1631 (Aldwincle) – 1631 (London)
Heaven save ye, gallants, and this hopeful age!
Y' are welcome to the downfall of the stage.
The fools have laboured long in their vocation,
And vice, the manufacture of the nation,
O'erstocks the town so much, and thrives so well,
That fops and knaves grow drugs, and will not sell.
In vain our wares on theatres are shown,
When each has a plantation of his own.
His cruse ne'er fails; for whatsoe'er he spends,
There's still God's plenty for himself and friends.
Should men be rated by poetic rules,
Lord, what a poll would there be raised from fools!
Meantime poor wit prohibited must lie,
As if 'twere made some French commodity.
Fools you will have, and raised at vast expense;
And yet, as soon as seen, they give offence.
Time was, when none would cry,—That oaf was me;
But now you strive about your pedigree.
Bauble and cap no sooner are thrown down,
But there's a muss of more than half the town.
Each one will challenge a child's part at least;
A sign the family is well increased.
Of foreign cattle there's no longer need,
When we're supplied so fast with English breed.
Well! flourish, countrymen; drink, swear, and roar;
Let every free-born subject keep his whore,
And wandering in the wilderness about,
At end of forty years not wear her out.
But when you see these pictures, let none dare
To own beyond a limb, or single share;
For where the punk is common, he's a sot,
Who needs will father what the parish got.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGHIEHHJJKKLLMMNNOOPQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011101101 1110101101 0111101010 0100101010 101110111 1101110111 01101110011 111010111 11111111 1111010101 1111010101 1101111111 111010011 1111110100 1111011101 011111111 1111111111 1111011100 1001110111 1101111101 1111001111 0101001101 1101011101 1101111101 1101001101 11001101111 01000010001 1111011101 1111110111 1101011101 1101110101 1111010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,435 |
Words | 262 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 32 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 259 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 93 Views
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"Prologue to the True Widow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22696/prologue-to-the-true-widow>.
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