Analysis of A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General
Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)
"His Grace! impossible! what, dead!
Of old age too, and in his bed!
And could that mighty warrior fall,
And so inglorious, after all?
Well, since he's gone, no matter how,
The last loud trump must wake him now;
And, trust me, as the noise grows stronger,
He'd wish to sleep a little longer.
And could he be indeed so old
As by the newspapers we're told?
Threescore, I think, is pretty high;
'Twas time in conscience he should die!
This world he cumber'd long enough;
He burnt his candle to the snuff;
And that's the reason, some folks think,
He left behind so great a stink.
Behold his funeral appears,
Nor widows' sighs, nor orphans' tears,
Wont at such times each heart to pierce,
Attend the progress of his hearse.
But what of that? his friends may say,
He had those honours in his day.
True to his profit and his pride,
He made them weep before he died
Come hither, all ye empty things!
Ye bubbles rais'd by breath of kings!
Who float upon the tide of state;
Come hither, and behold your fate!
Let pride be taught by this rebuke,
How very mean a thing's a duke;
From all his ill-got honours flung,
Turn'd to that dirt from whence he sprung"
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHXXXXIIJJ KKLLMMNN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010011 11110011 011101001 010100101 11111101 01111111 011101110 111101010 01110111 1101011 1111101 11010111 1111101 11110101 01010111 11011101 01110001 11011101 11111111 0101111 11111111 1111011 11110011 11110111 11011101 11011111 11010111 11000111 11111101 11010101 1111111 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,121 |
Words | 216 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 24, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 436 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 107 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 67 Views
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"A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24253/a-satirical-elegy-on-the-death-of-a-late-famous-general>.
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