Analysis of Pernicious Weed!

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



The pipe, with solemn interposing puff,
Makes half a sentence at a time enough;
The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain,
Then pause and puff, and speak, and pause again.
Such often, like the tube they so admire,
Important triflers! have more smoke than fire.
Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society's chief joys,
Thy worst effect is banishing for hours
The sex whose presence civilizes ours.


Scheme AABCDEFFGG
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Etheree  (20%)
Metre 0111011 1101010101 0101010101 1101010101 1101011101 0101111110 0101110101 0101010011 11011100110 01110110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 418
Words 72
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10
Lines Amount 10
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 334
Words per stanza (avg) 70
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

21 sec read
408

William Cowper

William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. more…

All William Cowper poems | William Cowper Books

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