Analysis of Worldly Place
Matthew Arnold 1822 (Laleham) – 1888 (Liverpool)
Even in a palace, life may be led well!
So spake the imperial sage, purest of men,
Marcus Aurelius. But the stifling den
Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell,
Our freedom for a little bread we sell,
And drudge under some foolish master's ken
Who rates us if we peer outside our pen--
Match'd with a palace, is not this a hell?
Even in a palace! On his truth sincere,
Who spoke these words, no shadow ever came;
And when my ill-school'd spirit is aflame
Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win,
I'll stop, and say: 'There were no succour here!
The aids to noble life are all within.'
Scheme | ABBA ABBA XCC DXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10001011111 110010011011 10110101 1101110111 10101010111 0110110101 11111111101 1101011101 10001011101 111111101 0111110101 110111111 110110111 0111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 640 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 112 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 92 Views
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"Worldly Place" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/27304/worldly-place>.
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