Analysis of An Enigma
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
A needle, small as small can be,
In bulk and use surpasses me,
Nor is my purchase dear;
For little, and almost for nought
As many of my kind are bought
As days are in the year.
Yet though but little use we boast,
And are procured at little cost,
The labour is not light;
Nor few artificers it asks,
All skilful in their several tasks,
To fashion us aright,
One fuses metal o’er the fire,
A second draws it into wire,
The shears another plies;
Who clips in length the brazen thread
From him who, chafing every shred,
Gives all an equal size.
A fifth prepares, exact and round,
The knob with which it must be crown’d;
His follower makes it fast;
And with his mallet and his file
To shape the point, employs awhile
The seventh and the last.
Now, therefore, Œdipus! declare
What creature, wonderful, and rare,
A process that obtains
Its purpose with so much ado
At last produces!—tell me true,
And take me for your pains!
Scheme | AABCCB CCCDDC EEFCCF CCCGGC HHICXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (27%) |
Metre | 01011111 01010101 111101 1100111 11011111 111001 11110111 01011101 01111 11111 1101101 11011 110101010 010110110 010101 11010101 111101001 111101 01010101 01111111 1100111 01110011 11010101 010001 11101 11010001 01101 11011101 11010111 011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 903 |
Words | 174 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 142 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 114 Views
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