Analysis of A Better Answer
Matthew Prior 1664 – 1721
Dear Cloe, how blubber'd is that pretty Face?
Thy cheek all on fire, and thy hair all uncurl'd:
Pr'ythee quit this caprice; and (as old Falstaf says)
Let us e'en talk a little like folks of this world.
How can'st thou presume, thou hast leave to destroy
The beauties, which Venus but lent to thy keeping?
Those looks were design'd to inspire love and joy:
More ord'nary eyes may serve people for weeping.
To be vexed at a trifle or two that I writ,
Your judgment at once, and my passion you wrong:
You take that for fact, which will scarce be found Wit:
Od's Life! must one swear to the truth of a song?
What I speak, my fair Cloe, and what I write, shews
The diff'rence there is betwixt Nature and Art:
I court others in verse; but I love thee in prose:
And they have my whimsies; but thou hast my heart.
The god of us verse-men (you know child) the sun,
How after his journeys he sets up his rest:
If at morning o'er earth 'tis his fancy to run;
At night he reclines on his Thetis's breast.
So when I am weary'd with wand'ring all day,
To thee my delight in the evening I come:
No matter what beauties I saw in my way:
They were but my visits; but thou art my home.
Then finish, dear Cloe, this pastoral war;
And let us like Horace and Lydia agree:
For thou art a girl as much brighter than her
As he was a poet sublimer than me.
Scheme | ABXB CDCD BEBE ABXB FBFB BXXX XGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 111111101 11111001111 1110101111 1111101011111 111101111101 010110111110 11001101101 111011110110 111101011111 11011011011 11111111111 11111101101 11111101111 0111011001 111001111101 0111111111 01111111101 11011011111 1110101111011 111011111 1111111111 11101001011 11011011011 10111011111 1101111001 011110010001 11101111010 111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,339 |
Words | 264 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 108 Views
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"A Better Answer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/27307/a-better-answer>.
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