Analysis of The Old Chimaeras. Old Recipts
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
THE old Chimaeras, old receipts
For making "happy land,"
The old political beliefs
Swam close before my hand.
The grand old communistic myths
In a middle state of grace,
Quite dead, but not yet gone to Hell,
And walking for a space,
Quite dead, and looking it, and yet
All eagerness to show
The Social-Contract forgeries
By Chatterton - Rousseau -
A hundred such as these I tried,
And hundreds after that,
I fitted Social Theories
As one would fit a hat!
Full many a marsh-fire lured me on,
I reached at many a star,
I reached and grasped them and behold -
The stump of a cigar!
All through the sultry sweltering day
The sweat ran down my brow,
The still plains heard my distant strokes
That have been silenced now.
This way and that, now up, now down,
I hailed full many a blow.
Alas! beneath my weary arm
The thicket seemed to grow.
I take the lesson, wipe my brow
And throw my axe aside,
And, sorely wearied, I go home
In the tranquil eventide.
And soon the rising moon, that lights
The eve of my defeat,
Shall see me sitting as of yore
By my old master's feet.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCDC EFDF XGXG XHXH XCXC HEXA XIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 011101 110101 01010001 110111 01111 0010111 11111111 010101 11010101 110011 0101100 110001 01011111 010101 1101010 111101 1100110111 1111001 11011001 011001 110101001 011111 01111101 111101 11011111 1111001 01011101 010111 11010111 011101 01010111 00101 01010111 011101 11110111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,037 |
Words | 205 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 46 Views
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