Analysis of Noli Aemulari

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



In controversial foul impureness
The peace that is thy light to thee
Quench not: in faith and inner sureness
Possess thy soul and let it be.

No violence--perverse--persistent--
What cannot be can bring to be;
No zeal what is make more existent,
And strife but blinds the eyes that see.

What though in blood their souls embruing,
The great, the good and wise they curse,
Still sinning, what they know not doing;
Stand still, forbear, nor make it worse.

By curses, by denunciation,
The coming fate they cannot stay;
Nor thou, by fiery indignation,
Though just, accelerate the day.


Scheme ABAB CBCA DADA EFEF
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 001011 01111111 11010101 01110111 110001010 11011111 111111010 01110111 1101111 01010111 110111110 1111111 11010010 01011101 111100010 1101001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 583
Words 101
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 114
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
82

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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