Analysis of On The Five Senses

Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)



All of us in one you'll find, Brethren of a wondrous kind;
Yet among us all no brother
Knows one tittle of the other;
We in frequent councils are,
And our marks of things declare,
Where, to us unknown, a clerk
Sits, and takes them in the dark.
He's the register of all
In our ken, both great and small;
By us forms his laws and rules,
He's our master, we his tools;
Yet we can with greatest ease
Turn and wind him where we please.
One of us alone can sleep,
Yet no watch the rest will keep,
But the moment that he closes,
Every brother else reposes.
If wine's brought or victuals drest,
One enjoys them for the rest.
Pierce us all with wounding steel,
One for all of us will feel.
Though ten thousand cannons roar,
Add to them ten thousand more,
Yet but one of us is found
Who regards the dreadful sound.
Do what is not fit to tell,
There's but one of us can smell.


Scheme ABBCDEFGGHHIIJJKHALMMNNOOPP
Poetic Form
Metre 11101111010101 10111110 11101010 1010101 01011101 1110101 1011001 1010011 01011101 1111101 11010111 1111101 1011111 1110111 1110111 10101110 1001011 111111 1011101 1111101 1111111 1110101 1111101 1111111 1010101 1111111 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 847
Words 173
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 27
Lines Amount 27
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 662
Words per stanza (avg) 171
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

53 sec read
76

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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