Analysis of When Orpheus Sweetly Did Complayne
William Strode 1602 – 1645
When Orpheus sweetly did complayne
Upon his lute with heavy strayne
How his Euridice was slayne,
The trees to heare
Obtayn'd an eare,
And after left it off againe.
At every stroake and every stay
The boughs kept time, and nodding lay,
And listened bending all one way:
The aspen tree
As well as hee
Began to shake and learn'd to play.
If wood could speake, a tree might heare,
If wood could sound true greife so neare
A tree might dropp an amber teare:
If wood so well
Could ring a knell
The Cipres might condole the beare.
The standing nobles of the grove
Hearing dead wood so speak and move
The fatall axe beganne to love:
They envyde death
That gave such breath
As men alive doe saints above
Scheme | AAABBA CCCBXC BBBDDB XXEFFE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001011 01111101 11111 0111 111 0101111 1100101001 01110101 01010111 0101 1111 01110111 11110111 11111111 01111101 1111 1101 011101 01010101 10111101 011111 111 1111 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 687 |
Words | 133 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 65 Views
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"When Orpheus Sweetly Did Complayne" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41709/when-orpheus-sweetly-did-complayne>.
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