Analysis of The Nightingale and Glow-worm
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
A Nightingale that all day long
Had cheered the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel, as well he might,
The keen demands of appetite;
When looking eagerly around,
He spied, far off upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark;
So stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop;
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangued him thus right eloquent:
'Did you admire my lamp,' quoth he,
'As much as I your minstrelsy,
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song,
For 'twas the self-same power divine
Taught you to sing, and me to shine,
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night.'
The songster heard his short oration,
And warbling out his approbation,
Released him, as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.
Hence jarring sectaries may learn,
Their real interest to discern:
That brother should not war with brother,
And worry and devour each other,
But sing and shine by sweet consent,
Till life's poor transient night is spent,
Respecting in each other's case
The gifts of nature and of grace.
Those Christians best deserve the name,
Who studiously make peace their aim;
Peace, both the duty and the prize
Of him that creeps and him that flies.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGX XHAAIICCJJHH KKLLGGHH MMHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01001111 11010111 111111010 1111110 01111111 0101110 11010001 11110101 01010001 01011111 1101111 11111011 01011101 01111100 11011111 111111 11011111 11111111 110111001 11110111 11110111 1100101 01111010 010011010 01111101 0101011 110111 1110101 110111110 0100010110 11011101 11110111 01001101 01110011 11010101 110001111 11010001 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,304 |
Words | 245 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 12, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 260 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 1:13 min read
- 534 Views
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"The Nightingale and Glow-worm" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40165/the-nightingale-and-glow-worm>.
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