Analysis of Cupid Turned Stroller. - From Anacreon



At dead of night, when stars appear,
And strong Bootes turns the Bear,
When mortals sleep their cares away,
Fatigued with labours of the day,
Cupid was knocking at my gate;
Who's there, says I? who knocks so late,
Disturbs my dreams, and breaks my rest?
O fear not me, a harmless guest,
He said; but open, open pray;
A foolish child, I've lost my way,
And wander here this moonlight night,
All wet and cold, and wanting light.
With due regard his voice I heard,
Then rose, a ready lamp prepared,
And saw a naked boy below,
With wings, a quiver, and a bow:
In haste I ran, unlock'd my gate,
Secure and thoughtless of my fate;
I set the child an easy chair
Against the fire, and dried his hair;
Brought friendly cups of cheerful wine,
And warm'd his little hands with mine.
All this did I with kind intent;
Said, dearest Friend, this bow ye see,
This pretty bow, belongs to me:
Observe, I pray, if all be right,
I fear the rain has spoil'd it quite:
He drew it then, and straight I found
Within my breast a secret wound.
'Tis done, the rogue no longer staid,
But leapt away, and laughing said,
Kind host adieu, we now must part,
Safe is my bow, but sick thy heart.


Scheme ABCCDDEECCFFGHIJDDBBKKLMMFFNNOPQQ
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101 011101 11011101 0111101 10110111 11111111 01110111 11110101 11110101 01011111 0101111 11010101 11011111 11010101 01010101 11010001 01110111 01010111 11011101 010100111 11011101 01110111 11111101 11011111 11010111 01111111 11011111 11110111 01110101 11011101 11010101 11011111 11111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,138
Words 224
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 33
Lines Amount 33
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 880
Words per stanza (avg) 222
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:08 min read
28

Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat. more…

All Matthew Prior poems | Matthew Prior Books

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