Analysis of In Memory Of The Late John Thornton, Esq.
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
Poets attempt the noblest task they can,
Praising the Author of all good in man,
And, next, commemorating Worthies lost,
The dead in whom that good abounded most.
Thee, therefore, of commercial fame, but more
Famed for thy probity from shore to shore;
Thee, Thornton! worthy in some page to shine,
As honest and more eloquent than mine,
I mourn; or, since thrice happy thou must be,
The world, no longer thy abode, not thee.
Thee to deplore were grief misspent indeed;
It were to weep that goodness has its meed,
That there is bliss prepared in yonder sky,
And glory for the virtuous, when they die.
What pleasure can the miser's fondled hoard,
Or spendthrift's prodigal excess afford,
Sweet as the privilege of healing woe
By virtue suffered combating below?
That privilege was thine; Heaven gave thee means
To illuminate with delight the saddest scenes,
Till thy appearance chased the gloom, forlorn
As midnight, and despairing of a morn.
Thou hadst an industry in doing good,
Restless as his who toils and sweats for food;
Avarice, in thee, was the desire of wealth
By rust unperishable or by stealth;
And if the genuine worth of gold depend
On application to its noblest end,
Thine had a value in the scales of Heaven,
Surpassing all that mine or mint had given.
And, though God made thee of a nature prone
To distribution boundless of thy own,
And still by motives of religious force
Impelled the more to that heroic course,
Yet was thy liberality discreet,
Nice in its choice, and of a tempered heat,
And though in act unwearied, secret still,
As in some solitude the summer rill
Refreshes, where it winds, the faded green,
And cheers the drooping flowers, unheard, unseen.
Such was thy charity; no sudden start,
After long sleep, of passion in the heart,
But steadfast principle, and, in its kind,
Of close relation to the eternal mind,
Traced easily to its true source above,
To Him, whose works bespeak his nature, love.
Thy bounties all were Christian, and I make
This record of thee for the gospel's sake;
That the incredulous themselves may see
Its use and power exemplified in thee.
Scheme | AABCDDEEFFGBHHIIJJKKLLMNOOPPQQRRSSTTUUVVWWXXYYZZFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1001010111 1001011101 010100101 0101110101 111010111 1111001111 1101001111 1100110011 1111110111 0111010111 1101010101 1011110111 1111010101 01010100111 110101101 11100101 110101101 1101001001 1101110111 101001010101 1101010101 110010101 1111000101 1011110111 100011001011 111111 01010011101 101011101 11010001110 01011111110 0111110101 101010111 0111010101 0101110101 111010001 1011010101 01011101 101100101 0101110101 01010100101 1111001101 1011110001 111000011 11010100101 1100111101 1111011101 1101010011 101111011 1001000111 1101001001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,054 |
Words | 367 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 50 |
Lines Amount | 50 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,658 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 365 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:51 min read
- 100 Views
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"In Memory Of The Late John Thornton, Esq." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39885/in-memory-of-the-late-john-thornton%2C-esq.>.
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