Analysis of Similes For Two Political Characters of 1819

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



I.
As from an ancestral oak
Two empty ravens sound their clarion,
Yell by yell, and croak by croak,
When they scent the noonday smoke
Of fresh human carrion:--

II.
As two gibbering night-birds flit
From their bowers of deadly yew
Through the night to frighten it,
When the moon is in a fit,
And the stars are none, or few:--

III.
As a shark and dog-fish wait
Under an Atlantic isle,
For the negro-ship, whose freight
Is the theme of their debate,
Wrinkling their red gills the while--

IV.
Are ye, two vultures sick for battle,
Two scorpions under one wet stone,
Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle,
Two crows perched on the murrained cattle,
Two vipers tangled into one.


Scheme ABCBBC ADEDDE AFGFFG XHXHHC
Poetic Form
Metre 1 1110101 1101011100 1110111 111011 1110100 1 111111 11101101 1011101 1011001 0011111 1 1010111 1010101 1010111 1011101 10011101 1 111101110 110010111 110111110 11110110 11010011
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 665
Words 126
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 132
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
144

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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