Analysis of Bacchanalian
I pity him who has not swung
The Thyrsus in the air,
And followed Bacchus, blithe and young,
"With vine-leaves in his hair;
And heard the Maenads sing,
And the mad cymbals ring.
I pity those who have to walk
In sober ways and sad,
And keep a guard upon their talk
Lest men should think them mad.
Or careless speech should show
The felon thought below.
When in my goblet, blithe and gay,
The beaded bubbles wink,
For all poor souls like this I pray
That they may learn to drink,
And, like a rose in rain,
Open shut heart and brain.
Who does not drink he does not know,
And he will never find,
What merry fellows live below
The surface of his mind:
These other men to me
Are right good company.
If beings of Mythology
Could live at my commands
Briareus I'd choose to be,
Who had a hundred hands:
And every hand of mine
Would hold a pint of wine
And of those beakers ninety-nine
With white wine and with red
Should brim for dear old friends of mine,
The living and the dead.
By Pluto there would be
A noble revelry!
Then let us unto Bacchus sing
Evoe! up and down-
For Bacchus is the wisest king
Who ever wore a crown:
His vine leaves hide from view
More wit than Plato knew.
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHII FJFJKK KLKLMM MNMNKK COCOPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 01001 01010101 111011 01011 001101 11011111 010101 01010111 111111 110111 010101 10110101 010101 11111111 111111 010101 101101 11111111 011101 11010101 010111 110111 111100 11010100 111101 11111 110101 0100111 110111 0111101 111011 11111111 010001 110111 010100 11110101 1101 11010101 110101 111111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,149 |
Words | 235 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 6 Views
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"Bacchanalian" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56848/bacchanalian>.
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