Analysis of Damon vs. Pythias
Two better friends you wouldn't pass
Throughout a summer's day,
Than DAMON and his PYTHIAS, -
Two merchant princes they.
At school together they contrived
All sorts of boyish larks;
And, later on, together thrived
As merry merchants' clerks.
And then, when many years had flown,
They rose together till
They bought a business of their own -
And they conduct it still.
They loved each other all their lives,
Dissent they never knew,
And, stranger still, their very wives
Were rather friendly too.
Perhaps you think, to serve my ends,
These statements I refute,
When I admit that these dear friends
Were parties to a suit?
But 'twas a friendly action, for
Good PYTHIAS, as you see,
Fought merely as executor,
And DAMON as trustee.
They laughed to think, as through the throng
Of suitors sad they passed,
That they, who'd lived and loved so long,
Should go to law at last.
The junior briefs they kindly let
Two sucking counsel hold;
These learned persons never yet
Had fingered suitors' gold.
But though the happy suitors two
Were friendly as could be,
Not so the junior counsel who
Were earning maiden fee.
They too, till then, were friends. At school
They'd done each other's sums,
And under Oxford's gentle rule
Had been the closest chums.
But now they met with scowl and grin
In every public place,
And often snapped their fingers in
Each other's learned face.
It almost ended in a fight
When they on path or stair
Met face to face. They made it quite
A personal affair.
And when at length the case was called
(It came on rather late),
Spectators really were appalled
To see their deadly hate.
One junior rose - with eyeballs tense,
And swollen frontal veins:
To all his powers of eloquence
He gave the fullest reins.
His argument was novel - for
A verdict he relied
On blackening the junior
Upon the other side.
"Oh," said the Judge, in robe and fur,
"The matter in dispute
To arbitration pray refer -
This is a friendly suit."
And PYTHIAS, in merry mood,
Digged DAMON in the side;
And DAMON, tickled with the feud,
With other digs replied.
But oh! those deadly counsel twain,
Who were such friends before,
Were never reconciled again -
They quarrelled more and more.
At length it happened that they met
On Alpine heights one day,
And thus they paid each one his debt,
Their fury had its way -
They seized each other in a trice,
With scorn and hatred filled,
And, falling from a precipice,
They, both of them, were killed.
Scheme | ABAB CXCX DEDE XFXF GHGH IJKJ LMLM NONO FJFJ PQPQ RSRS TUTU VWVW XXXX IYKY KHKH ZYZY XIXI NBNB X1 X1 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (95%) Etheree (28%) |
Metre | 11011101 010101 110011 110101 11010101 111101 01010101 110101 01110111 110101 11010111 010111 11110111 011101 01011101 010101 01111111 110101 11011111 010101 11010101 11111 11010100 01011 11111101 110111 11110111 111111 01011101 110101 1110101 110101 11010101 010111 11010101 010101 11110111 111101 01010101 110101 11111101 0100101 01011100 11011 1110001 111111 11111111 010001 01110111 111101 10010001 111101 1101111 010101 111101100 110101 11001101 010101 1100010 010101 11010101 010001 1010101 110101 010101 110001 01010101 110101 11110101 101101 0101001 11101 11110111 11111 01111111 110111 11110001 110101 01010100 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,355 |
Words | 439 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 20 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 80 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:13 min read
- 120 Views
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"Damon vs. Pythias" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41216/damon-vs.-pythias>.
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