Analysis of On An Ill-Managed House

Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)



LET me thy properties explain:
A rotten cabin dropping rain:
Chimneys, with scorn rejecting smoke;
Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.
Here elements have lost their uses,
Air ripens not, nor earth produces:
In vain we make poor Sheelah toil,
Fire will not roast, nor water boil.
Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,
The Goddess Want, in triumph reigns:
And her chief officers of state,
Sloth, Dirt, and Theft, around her wait.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFF
Poetic Form
Metre 11110001 01010101 10110101 1101011 110011110 11111010 01111101 101111101 11010101 01010101 00110011 11010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 450
Words 75
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 346
Words per stanza (avg) 73
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 21, 2023

22 sec read
440

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. more…

All Jonathan Swift poems | Jonathan Swift Books

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