Analysis of Song
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
No more shall hapless Celia's ears
Be flattered with the cries
Of lovers drowned in floods of tears,
Or murdered by her eyes;
No serenades to break her rest,
Nor songs her slumbers to molest,
With my fa, la, la.
The fragrant flowers that once would bloom
And flourish in her hair,
Since she no longer breathes perfume
Their odours to repair,
Must fade, alas! and wither now
As placed on any common brow,
With my fa, la, la.
Her lip, so winning and so meek,
No longer has its charms;
As well she might by whistling seek
To lure us to her arms;
Affected once, 'tis real now,
As her forsaken gums may show,
With my fa, la, la.
The down that on her chin so smooth
So lovely once appeared,
That, too, has left her with her youth,
Or sprouts into a beard;
As fields, so green when newly sown,
With stubble stiff are overgrown,
With my fa, la, la.
Then, Celia, leave your apish tricks,
And change your girlish airs,
For ombre, snuff, and politics,
Those joys that suit your years;
No patches can lost youth recall,
Nor whitewash prop a tumbling wall,
With my fa, la, la.
Scheme | abcbddE fgfghhE ijijhxE xkxkllE mcmannE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (23%) |
Metre | 1111011 110101 11010111 110101 111101 1101101 11111 010101111 010001 11110101 11101 11010101 11110101 11111 01110011 110111 11111101 111101 0101111 10010111 11111 01110111 110101 11110101 110101 11111101 1101101 11111 1101111 011101 111010 111111 1101111 11101001 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,038 |
Words | 203 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 162 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 46 Views
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"Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40093/song>.
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