Analysis of King Goodheart
There lived a King, as I've been told
In the wonder-working days of old,
When hearts were twice as good as gold,
And twenty times as mellow.
Good temper triumphed in his face,
And in his heart he found a place
For all the erring human race
And every wretched fellow.
When he had Rhenish wine to drink
It made him very sad to think
That some, at junket or at jink,
Must be content with toddy:
He wished all men as rich as he
(And he was rich as rich could be),
So to the top of every tree
Promoted everybody.
Ambassadors cropped up like hay,
Prime Ministers and such as they
Grew like asparagus in May,
And Dukes were three a penny:
Lord Chancellors were cheap as sprats,
And Bishops in their shovel hats
Were plentiful as tabby cats -
If possible, too many.
On every side Field-Marshals gleamed,
Small beer were Lords-Lieutenants deemed,
With Admirals the ocean teemed,
All round his wide dominions;
And Party Leaders you might meet
In twos and threes in every street
Maintaining, with no little heat,
Their various opinions.
That King, although no one denies,
His heart was of abnormal size,
Yet he'd have acted otherwise
If he had been acuter.
The end is easily foretold,
When every blessed thing you hold
Is made of silver, or of gold,
You long for simple pewter.
When you have nothing else to wear
But cloth of gold and satins rare,
For cloth of gold you cease to care -
Up goes the price of shoddy:
In short, whoever you may be,
To this conclusion you'll agree,
When every one is somebody,
Then no one's anybody!
Scheme | AAABCCCBDDDAEEEE FFFECGGEHHACIIIX JJJKAAAKKKKEEEEE |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 001010111 11011111 0101110 11010011 00111101 11010101 01001010 1111111 11110111 11110111 111011 11111111 01111111 110111001 010100 01001111 11000111 11010001 0101010 11000111 01001101 01001101 1100110 110011101 11010101 11000101 11111 01010111 010101001 01011101 1100010 1111101 11110101 1111010 11111 01110001 11001111 11110111 1111010 11110111 11110101 11111111 1101110 01010111 11010101 11001110 1111000 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,478 |
Words | 283 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 16, 16 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 396 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 94 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 83 Views
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"King Goodheart" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41240/king-goodheart>.
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