Analysis of Report Of An Adjudged Case
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.
So the Tongue was the Lawyer and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning,
While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,
So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.
In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear,
And your lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find,
That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear,
Which amounts to possession time out of mind.
Then holding the spectacles up to the court, -
Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle,
As wide as the ridge of the Nose is, in short,
Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.
Again, would your lordship a moment suppose
('Tis a case that has happened and may be again),
That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,
Pray who would or who could wear spectacles then?
On the whole it appears, and my argument shows
With a reasoning the court will never condemn,
That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose,
And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.
Then shifting his side, as a lawyer knows how,
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes,
But what were his arguments few people know,
For the court did not think they were equally wise.
So his lordship decreed, with a grave solemn tone,
Decisive and clear, without on if or but, -
That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,
By daylight or candlelight - Eyes should be shut.
Scheme | ABAB XCXC XDXD EFEF AGAG AHAH XIXI XJXJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 01101011001 01001101001 01001111011 11011001101 101101001001 1011110011110 11101111001 111110010010 001101111001 01111101001 10111100101 10110101111 11001001101 11011111010 11101101101 011111111010 0111101001 101111001101 101011001101 11111111001 101101011001 101000111001 101001001101 001111001011 11011101011 11001001101 11011001101 101111101001 11101101101 01001011111 101001111001 111101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,512 |
Words | 286 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 150 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 68 Views
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"Report Of An Adjudged Case" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40080/report-of-an-adjudged-case>.
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