Analysis of In the Depths

Arthur Hugh Clough 1819 (Liverpool) – 1861 (Florence)



It is not sweet content, be sure,
That moves the nobler Muse to song,
Yet when could truth come whole and pure
From hearts that inly writhe with wrong?

'T is not the calm and peaceful breast
That sees or reads the problem true;
They only know, on whom 't has prest
Too hard to hope to solve it too.

Our ills are worse than at their ease
These blameless happy souls suspect,
They only study the disease,
Alas, who live not to detect.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 11111011 11010111 11111101 1111111 111010101 11110101 110111111 11111111 101111111 11010101 11010001 01111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 438
Words 86
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

25 sec read
337

Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to ground-breaking nurse Florence Nightingale. more…

All Arthur Hugh Clough poems | Arthur Hugh Clough Books

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