Analysis of Mercury And The Elephant
Anne Kingsmill Finch 1661 – 1720 (Westminster)
As Merc'ry travell'd thro' a Wood,
(Whose Errands are more Fleet than Good)
An Elephant before him lay,
That much encumber'd had the Way:
The Messenger, who's still in haste,
Wou'd fain have bow'd, and so have past;
When up arose th' unweildy Brute,
And wou'd repeat a late Dispute,
In which (he said) he'd gain'd the Prize
From a wild Boar of monstrous Size:
But Fame (quoth he) with all her Tongues,
Who Lawyers, Ladies, Soldiers wrongs,
Has, to my Disadvantage, told
An Action throughly Bright and Bold;
Has said, that I foul Play had us'd,
And with my Weight th' Opposer bruis'd;
Had laid my Trunk about his Brawn,
Before his Tushes cou'd be drawn;
Had stunn'd him with a hideous Roar,
And twenty-thousand Scandals more:
But I defy the Talk of Men,
Or Voice of Brutes in ev'ry Den;
Th' impartial Skies are all my Care,
And how it stands Recorded there.
Amongst you Gods, pray, What is thought?
Quoth Mercury–Then have you Fought!
Solicitous thus shou'd I be
For what's said of my Verse and Me;
Or shou'd my Friends Excuses frame,
And beg the Criticks not to blame
(Since from a Female Hand it came)
Defects in Judgment, or in Wit;
They'd but reply - Then has she Writ!
Our Vanity we more betray,
In asking what the World will say,
Than if, in trivial Things like these,
We wait on the Event with ease;
Nor make long Prefaces, to show
What Men are not concern'd to know:
For still untouch'd how we succeed,
'Tis for themselves, not us, they Read;
Whilst that proceeding to requite,
We own (who in the Muse delight)
'Tis for our Selves, not them, we Write.
Betray'd by Solitude to try
Amusements, which the Prosp'rous fly;
And only to the Press repair,
To fix our scatter'd Papers there;
Tho' whilst our Labours are preserv'd,
The Printers may, indeed, be starv'd.
Scheme | AABBXXCC DDXXEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LL MMMNN BBOOPPXXAQQRR JJXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (26%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1110101 11011111 11000111 11010101 01001101 11110111 11011111 01010101 01111101 10111101 11111101 11010101 1110101 1101101 11111111 01111111 11110111 01110111 111101001 01010101 11010111 1111011 1101011111 01110101 01111111 11001111 01001111 11111101 11110101 0101111 1101111 10010101 11011111 101001101 01010111 110100111 11100111 111111 11110111 11011101 11011111 1101011 11100101 111011111 0111011 0101011 01010101 111010101 11101101 01010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,776 |
Words | 322 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 18, 2, 5, 13, 4 |
Lines Amount | 50 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 224 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 1:44 min read
- 150 Views
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"Mercury And The Elephant" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3269/mercury-and-the-elephant>.
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