Analysis of Mimnermus in Church
William Johnson Cory 1823 (Great Torrington) – 1892 (Hampstead)
You promise heavens free from strife,
Pure truth, and perfect change of will;
But sweet, sweet is this human life,
So sweet, I fain would breathe it still;
Your chilly stars I can forgo,
This warm kind world is all I know.
You say there is no substance here,
One great reality above:
Back from that void I shrink in fear,
And child-like hide myself in love:
Show me what angels feel. Till then
I cling, a mere weak man, to men.
You bid me lift my mean desires
From faltering lips and fitful veins
To sexless souls, ideal quires,
Unwearied voices, wordless strains:
My mind with fonder welcome owns
One dear dead friend's remember'd tones.
Forsooth the present we must give
To that which cannot pass away;
All beauteous things for which we live
By laws of time and space decay.
But O, the very reason why
I clasp them, is because they die.
Scheme | ABABCC XDXDEE FGFGHH XIXIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 11001111 11111101 11111111 11011101 11111111 11111101 111001 11111101 0111101 11110111 11011111 111111010 110010101 1101011 110101 11110101 11110101 1010111 11110101 1111111 11110101 11010101 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 845 |
Words | 157 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 164 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 74 Views
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