Analysis of A Doubt of Martyrdom
Sir John Suckling 1609 – 1642
O for some honest lover’s ghost,
Some kind unbodied post
Sent from the shades below!
I strangely long to know
Whether the noble chaplets wear
Those that their mistress’ scorn did bear
Or those that were used kindly.
For whatsoe’er they tell us here
To make those sufferings dear,
’Twill there, I fear, be found
That to the being crown’d
T’ have loved alone will not suffice,
Unless we also have been wise
And have our loves enjoy’d.
What posture can we think him in
That, here unloved, again
Departs, and ’s thither gone
Where each sits by his own?
Or how can that Elysium be
Where I my mistress still must see
Circled in other’s arms?
For there the judges all are just,
And Sophonisba must
Be his whom she held dear,
Not his who loved her here.
The sweet Philoclea, since she died,
Lies by her Pirocles his side,
Not by Amphialus.
Some bays, perchance, or myrtle bough
For difference crowns the brow
Of those kind souls that were
The noble martyrs here:
And if that be the only odds
(As who can tell?), ye kinder gods,
Give me the woman here!
Scheme | AABBCCD EFXAGXA XXXXDDX HHFEIIG JJXEKKE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 1111 110101 110111 1001011 11110111 1110110 111111 1111001 111111 110101 111011101 01110111 011011 11011110 110101 010111 111111 111101001 11110111 100101 11010111 011 111111 111101 011111 110111 111 11011101 1100101 111110 010101 01110101 11111101 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,035 |
Words | 197 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 162 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 59 sec read
- 129 Views
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