Analysis of The Good, Great Man
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 (Ottery St Mary) – 1834 (Highgate)
'How seldom, friend! a good great man inherits
Honour or wealth with all his worth and pains!
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits
If any man obtain that which he merits
Or any merit that which he obtains.'
Reply to the Above
For shame, dear friend, renounce this canting strain!
What would'st thou have a good great man obtain?
Place? titles? salary? a gilded chain?
Or throne of corses which his sword had slain?
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends!
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,
The good great man? three treasures, LOVE, and LIGHT,
And CALM THOUGHTS, regular as infant's breath:
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,
HIMSELF, his MAKER, and the ANGEL DEATH!
Scheme | ABXAB X CCCCDDEFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111010 111111101 11110101110 11010111110 1101011101 011001 111101111 11111011101 1101000101 111111111 1001011111 11111011 0111110101 0111001101 0111111101 0111000101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 708 |
Words | 128 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 1, 10 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 186 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 145 Views
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