Analysis of Stella’s Birth-Day. 1724-5
Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)
As when a beauteous nymph decays,
We say she's past her dancing days;
So poets lose their feet by time,
And can no longer dance in rhyme.
Your annual bard had rather chose
To celebrate your birth in prose:
Yet merry folks, who want by chance
A pair to make a country dance,
Call the old housekeeper, and get her
To fill a place for want of better:
While Sheridan is off the hooks,
And friend Delany at his books,
That Stella may avoid disgrace,
Once more the Dean supplies their place.
Beauty and wit, too sad a truth!
Have always been confined to youth;
The god of wit and beauty's queen,
He twenty-one and she fifteen,
No poet ever sweetly sung,
Unless he were, like Phoebus, young;
Nor ever nymph inspired to rhyme,
Unless, like Venus, in her prime.
At fifty-six, if this be true,
Am I a poet fit for you?
Or, at the age of forty-three,
Are you a subject fit for me?
Adieu! bright wit, and radiant eyes!
You must be grave and I be wise.
Our fate in vain we would oppose:
But I'll be still your friend in prose:
Esteem and friendship to express,
Will not require poetic dress;
And if the Muse deny her aid
To have them sung, they may be said.
But, Stella, say, what evil tongue
Reports you are no longer young;
That Time sits with his scythe to mow
Where erst sat Cupid with his bow;
That half your locks are turn'd to gray?
I'll ne'er believe a word they say.
'Tis true, but let it not be known,
My eyes are somewhat dimmish grown;
For nature, always in the right,
To your decays adapts my sight;
And wrinkles undistinguished pass,
For I'm ashamed to use a glass:
And till I see them with these eyes,
Whoever says you have them, lies.
No length of time can make you quit
Honour and virtue, sense and wit;
Thus you may still be young to me,
While I can better hear than see.
O ne'er may Fortune show her spite,
To make me deaf, and mend my sight!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJBBKKLLMMCCNNOPJJQRSSTTUUVVMMWWLLUU |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101101 11110101 11011111 01110101 110011101 1101101 11011111 01110101 10110010 110111110 11001101 01100111 11010101 11010111 10011101 1110111 0111011 11010101 11010101 01101101 110101011 01110001 11011111 11010111 11011101 11001111 011101001 11110111 101011101 11111101 01010101 11100101 01010101 11111111 11011101 01111101 11111111 11110111 11111111 11010111 11111111 1111111 1101001 11010111 0100101 11011101 01111111 01011111 11111111 1010101 11111111 11110111 11110101 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,803 |
Words | 359 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 54 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,413 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 357 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 99 Views
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"Stella’s Birth-Day. 1724-5" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24314/stella%E2%80%99s-birth-day.-1724-5>.
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