Analysis of On Delia (Bid Adieu, My Sad Heart)
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
Bid adieu, my sad heart, bid adieu to thy peace!
Thy pleasure is past, and thy sorrows increase;
See the shadows of evening how far they extend,
And a long night is coming, that never may end;
For the sun is now set that enlivened the scene,
And an age must be past ere it rises again.
Already deprived of its splendour and heat,
I feel thee more slowly, more heavily beat;
Perhaps overstrained with the quick pulse of pleasure,
Thou art glad of this respite to beat at thy leisure;
But the sigh of distress shall now weary thee more
Than the flutter and tumult of passion before.
The heart of a lover is never at rest,
With joy overwhelmed, or with sorrow oppressed:
When Delia is near, all is ecstasy then,
And I even forget I must lose her again:
When absent, as wretched as happy before,
Despairing I cry, I shall see her no more!
Scheme | AABBXC DDEEFF GGCCFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101111101111 11011011001 10111011101 001111011011 101111101001 011111111001 0100111101 11111011001 0111011110 1111110111110 101101111011 101001011001 01101011011 1101111001 11011111001 011001111001 11011011001 01011111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 825 |
Words | 160 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 217 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 49 Views
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